街市THE WET MARKET
Iceberg lettuce
西生菜
The round, crisp, thick-leafed head lettuce, and the one Hong Kong homes use for lettuce in oyster sauce: thirty seconds in boiling water and a pour of the sauce. Restaurants tend to use the loose-leafed Chinese lettuce; homes use iceberg because it is what the fridge holds. Grit hides at the base of the leaves, so rinse each one.
Preparation
Strip the outer leaves, tear into large pieces, rinse each one; blanch thirty to forty-five seconds and lift out.
Origin
Grown in Australia. At every supermarket year round: Harris Farm, Coles and Woolworths all carry it. What an Asian grocer tags as Chinese lettuce is the loose-leafed 唐生菜 or 油麥菜, not this.
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
