[Original Subject: Washing Vegetables]
The Chinese/Taiwanese eat an abundance of vegetables (and fruit). A lot of time involved in the preparing of a meal involves washing vegetables. I am wondering what others feel are the best methods and techinques for doing this?
Obviously, a lot of rinsing is required to get the dust and dirt off, usually two or three rinsings. Those are necessary initial steps.
After that there is usually a soaking procedure. Some years ago, my wife and I commonly used a commercially available solution to “soak” the vegetables for ten minutes or so. We then switched to “soybean powder” at the advice of some people in the local open-air market. Later a doctor told us that he didn’t think either of those two methods were good, and that we should use salt and a little vinegar to soak the vegetables. We did that for several years. Then, we were introduced to this aerator concept — this is a machine with a long thin hose and a metal bubbler head. You put your vegetables in a large basin of clear water (after rinsing, as explained above), put in the bubbler head, and turn on the machine, and it pumps O3 in there for 20 minutes. This is supposed to be the latest high-tech solution to the demands of vegetable washing.
I am wondering if anyone can offer criticisms of the above methods, and/or suggest better methods based on their experiences of living in Taiwan and associating with the local people.