Roselle

​Hong Kong has a kind of market they call a “wet market.” It’s a street market with stalls of fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes meat and fish. They are usually set up in pedestrian side streets in busy areas, but this one was on the covered pedestrian overpass linking the ferry piers to the IFC mall. There was just one stall, set up in a circle in the middle of the overpass, and they sold only vegetables.

​I wasn’t planning to buy anything, but these little beauties, about the size of a gum ball, caught my eye. The vegetable lady said they were roselle, and told me to put them in boiling water, add some brown sugar, and drink it. She also said I could make jam out of them, but we both knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Google told me that roselle, a species of hibiscus, is used all over the world as a vegetable, a hot drink, a cold drink, and as a base for jam. I steeped them in hot water and drank some hot, then had some iced later in the day. Our rental apartment didn’t have any brown sugar, but my roselle drink didn’t need any. It was comforting in the morning, and refreshing in the afternoon.

This vegetable is my new favorite drink!