snow pea shoots are really good stirfried in an oyster sauce thickened with cornflour, with the fried puffy tofu that soaks up half the gravy before disgorging like a sponge in your mouth.

i was standing by the chinese vegetable stall at paddy’s market, clutching a box of them and looking for someone i could give some money to, when the chinese vegetable auntie came up to me and pressed a longan into my hand. $2, darling, she said, smiling. don’t need a bag? good girl.

swiftly unpeeled next to a pungent rubbish bin, the longan was sweet, a wobbly globe of juice.