each week, new produce
delivered to our doorstep,
sometimes strange, foreign:
watermelon radishes,
Hakurei turnips,
bok choy, purple bell peppers,
garlic scapes, (the shoots
that grow out of garlic bulbs.)
we prepare them healthfully.
exotic thai tastes,
fish sauce, soy sauce and garlic,
thai chile paste,
cooked with beef and piled on rice,
topped with egg and sriracha
© Susan Joy Clark 2021
This was written for this week’s Tanka Tuesday challenge, hosted by Colleen M. Chesebro. This week’s theme was Disoveries, and I chose to write about food discoveries and wrote both a choka and tanka.
We have joined a CSA, and that has introduced us to some new produce that is not normally found in grocery stores — sometimes just a new variety of something familiar, like the purple bell peppers, or something somewhat familiar that I wasn’t in the habit of buying, like the bok choy. Actually, bok choy was one of the main components in the recipe, found here, that I featured in the tanka. The syllable count made it hard to include it, and I wanted to emphasize the foreign Thai flavorings. I’ve made it two or three times now, so it’s recommended.