Bean Sprouts

Come close to the bowl of bean sprouts and just look at them. A good sprout is fat in the middle, pale, almost glassy, with a tight little hook of a head — that is just how the seedling grows, nothing more. Snap one. It should crack, not bend. If it bends like wet paper, it has been sitting too long, losing water, going soft where it should be tight.

Smell them too. Fresh bean sprouts smell of clean water and green growth. A sour or musty note means spoilage has set in somewhere on the sprout, even if the rest still looks fine.

Now, some people say bean sprouts are just crunchy water, no food value at all. No! A hundred grams gives you thirty kilocalories, three grams of protein, barely any fat. Small, but real. That misconception is exactly why cooks throw them into the wok too early and boil them to death — because "there is nothing there to ruin." There is. Thirty seconds in heat, no more, or you get limp straw instead of that clean, living crunch.