So many Asian cuisines are vegetarian, yet the flavours of those vegetables are often subsumed into the spices or sauces which the recipes dictate. A side dish of choi sum will probably have umami flavours from soy, for instance, or smoky flavours from toasted sesame, which are just as prominent – if not more so – than the flavour of the vegetable itself.
Even so, there are enough instances where...
