Many times when buying Kai Lan:
and Choi Sum
Chinese shop staff heartily say
Cut flowers. Don't eat them. Flowers have insects.
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Are they correct? How do the flowers harm you?
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Were they referring to pollinators that land on those flowers?
Vegetables – Why do Chinese grocers advise cutting and discarding flowers in Chinese vegetables
chinese-cuisinevegetables
Related Solutions
You're close. In actual fact, however, most of the commercial soy sauces and other Chinese sauces you buy are not fermented at all; they're acid-hydrolyzed.
Fermented soy sauce (or other soy-based sauces) are actually translucent and fairly light in colour. But fermentation takes months, so manufacturers hydrolyze instead. The process is completely chemical, and involves boiling the beans in a strong acid and then neutralizing with a strong base (normally, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide).
This process makes a much stronger, glutamate-heavy sauce than natural fermentation. It also produces a much darker colour. That's why so many of the sauces you see are dark.
Some of the sauces aren't actually hydrolyzed or fermented but will contain artificial colour, if you look at the ingredients. I guess the manufacturers figure that consumers are so used to the dark colour that they would be suspicious if it wasn't there.
Here is a picture of naturally brewed soy sauce:
Compare to the commercial hydrolyzed kind:
Some brands, like Kikkoman, claim to be naturally-brewed, but the colour suggests otherwise; either they do something to speed up the fermentation process or they're adding colouring.
Note: As requested, I've updated the original image to one I found of a bowl of what certainly appears to be the hydrolyzed kind, in order to give an "apples to apples" comparison. However, it's hard to find a picture of a bowl of soy sauce that tells you which brand it is, other than the Kikkoman, whose origin is questionable.
For the sake of completeness, there is also one other reason why soy sauce might be very dark (other than actual "dark soy sauce" which contains molasses), which is that the sauce might actually be from black soybeans. Those are not common, however, and unless a sauce specifically says that it is from black soybeans, it probably is not.
I believe it has more to do with HOW a microwave cooks or reheats food vs. the way a conventional stove top does it.
When you put something into a microwave to reheat it, it does not apply heat the way a stove does. Microwaves use their namesakes -microwave radiation- to jostle the molecules contained within the food, causing friction, which in turn causes heat, and heats up the food, from the inside out. This means that food with a higher density, such as meat or veggies, will heat up more quickly than liquids, which are less dense. Also, microwaves don't just heat up the food, but also the container, be it plastic, foam, or the stereotypical white paper boxes. When this happens, the particles within the container (which are being heated) will give off various chemicals, which can alter the taste of food.
When you reheat food on a stove top, you are using a container that is much more resistant to heat (a pan) and you are applying heat evenly, from the outside of the food, regardless of it's density. This means that the pan (90% of the time) will not alter the way your food tastes, and because everything is being heated at the same time and rate, your food tastes more like it did yesterday, or whenever it was that you brought it home.
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Best Answer
I would say there may be more insects in the flowers, but that is not a big deal. The ones not removed by normal washing or possibly a saltwater rinse will mostly at least be tiny ones attracted by the flowers and will not affect quality and taste. Some would even callously call it extra protein. IMO, the real issue with these types of plants having flowers is that the plant is bolted. Most if not all of these vegetables are best quality when harvested before they bloom. Any bolting would normally mean the plant was beyond prime condition when harvested or was grown under stress, too hot, too cold, too crowded, not enough water are typical causes of early bolting. The entire plant may be fine, but sometimes will be tougher or bitter and the flowers and stem on many are bitter and tough and not what you are looking for. They often will have a very different taste than the rest of the plant. In some cases, you might like that taste, but in most it is not what you were expecting. For instance, in Pak Choi I have had it with flowering. Not only was the stem to the flowers stringy, it had a latex like with liquid which was off-putting. The flower itself had a strong mustard taste which was not at all like the leaf and stem which is what was intended.