Tasty Tubers of the World

Today I made an attempt at food styling with root vegetables. So I went down to Chinatown and bought a pound of fresh water chestnuts for a buck and 3 segments of a lotus root, also for a dollar. Amazing. If you want to know why the prices are so cheap in Chinatown, here's a good story that explains from WNYC.
I've only had water chestnuts from a can, but now that I've had the real thing, I don't think I can go back. Once you peel off the skin, (a little softer than a regular chestnut) the meat tastes like a less dense version of coconut. But some raw pieces I nibbled on were almost woody in texture after a few chews. I think those pieces were a little old. Compost bag for them. The rest of the tuber was lightly sweet and crunchy. I recently tried sunchokes from the farmer's market and the tastes are very similiar.
I didn't feel like making and buying white rice for the fried rice with water chestnuts recipe, so I just bought a huge styrofoam container of fried rice for 2 bucks from a street vendor. It was a very Sandra Lee Semi Homemade moment, but it's good to support your local fried rice vendor.
After picking out the carrots and peas and heating the rice, the pan was already slicked with oil for scrambing the egg. So conveniant! Heating up the waterchestnut took no time at all. Then I just threw some green onion in the bowl for color. They might not be available everywhere, but fresh waterchestnuts are definately a nice addition to liven up a standard fried rice recipe.