Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

Most of the time I have to eat my favorite dish secretly and carefully without being noticed. I am not eating something controversial or disgusting; it's actually something really simple: boiled vegetables.

Yes, my favorite dish is boiled vegetables. The name says it all. You boil water, toss in the vegetables, wait a little bit, and then voila. It's the simplest dish ever.

The reason I have to eat it secretly is because people around me are often very critical about it.

"Does that actually taste of anything?" my Chinese friends query quizzically. I'm not surprised when friends from northern China are skeptical - in the north, everything must be strongly seasoned. But even my friends from the south of China, where the cuisine is known for a lightness of touch and an emphasis on the natural flavors of the ingredients, think that boiled vegetables is a little too simple.

My foreign friends also have a strong reaction. "You're destroying the vitamin C in them!" they hyperventilate. Yes, studies have shown that some vegetables such as cabbage, carrots and broccoli, are healthier if you eat them raw. Cooking vegetables, these studies point out, destroys about 50 percent of the nutrients.

My defense to my Western critics is to point out that in China, it is unsafe to eat vegetables raw due to the high pesticide levels found in much of the produce. My mother, a professional cook, would never allow me to eat raw vegetables at home. We know sometimes that washing vegetables does not remove chemical pesticide residues. She always cooks them because it helps to kill some chemical residues from pesticides. Earlier this month, banned pesticides were found in one third of the vegetables samples taken by Greenpeace from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

However, even my mother does not appreciate my favorite dish. "You're just too lazy to cook them properly," she said. Well, let's assume she is partially right.

To convince my foreign friends to eat cooked vegetables, I've tried showing them studies saying that eating raw vegetables can also have detrimental effects, such as creating fatigue and slowing down your metabolism.

"No way. Not in a hundred years," most of them reply. No offence taken, my dear friends. I will occupy the kitchen in protest. 

What is more frustrating than failing to defend my favorite dish is that I have also found reports saying that boiling vegetable depletes them of their nutritional value. You can steam, stir-fry, or roast vegetables. But no boiling.

Are you seriously telling me I might have been eating vegetables in the wrong way for years? I have doubts, so I dig deeper. Boiled vegetable recipes are highly recommended on eatdrinkbetter.com. It says boiling vegetable is "a surprisingly tasty, simple meal."

Who should I trust? I am confused. I think I will just continue to enjoy eating boiled vegetables alone, secretly and carefully without being noticed.

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.