Vegetable Dishes 18: Celery

Celery is a su vegetarian item.¹ The plumper they are, the better they taste. Choose the white stalks to stir-fry, add bamboo shoots, and cook until done. People now like to stir-fry it with pork, confusing its flavour and rendering it largely unremarkable.² When not fully cooked, celery is quite crisp but flavourless. When mixed raw with pheasant, it is quite dish to laud over.³

芹
芹，素物也，愈肥愈妙。取白根炒之，加筍，以熟為度。今人有以炒肉者，清濁不倫。不熟者，雖脆無味。或生拌野雞，又當別論。

Notes:
¹Su 素 is basically the opposite of hun 葷, where there are no animal-based ingredients and only vegetables not of the allium family, which excludes garlic, onions, shallots, garlic chives, and the like.

²I would disagree here, the flavour of celery is strong enough to cut through any meat you can throw at it. I would argue that celery more often will take over any dish you add it to than not.

³The classic Chinese homestyle dish celery with chicken is more or less similar to this.