surf clam with chinese celery 蛤肉炒中芹

I typically only shop for grocery once a week. The reason for the infrequency is I have to go across town to be able to buy the ingredients I like. While if I look hard enough I can find some ingredients near where I live it is just too painful to having to go to many shops. By going across town I always go to a few Asian stores I frequented for decades and knowing I would not be disappointed. In fact it take me less time to shop across town not to mention the price is 20 - 30 % less.

One side effect of the self-imposed weekly shopping regiment is like feast or famine. The challenge is specially acute with ingredients that are highly perishable. There is no better adjective than "perishable" for live seafood.

I have concluded that for the time and fuel driving across town the last thing I want is to realize I shop too little. I always err on the safe side. Yesterday was no exception. I bought a big crab. 3 lbs of surf clams, and 3 lbs of mussels - all live.

With so much live seafood I have to think on my feet for recipe. For the surf clam I was planning to use some for deep fried taro biscuits 炸芋頭餅. The problem is I have 2 too many. I decide to make a stir fry dish with the surf clams. I chose to use Chinese celery 中芹 that I have around.
I shucked two large clams - and I took care not to lose a drop of juice; note the Chinese celery 中芹 in the stainless steel bowl

I wanted some shitake mushroom, tree fungus, and fish maw with the dish - I fed (a Cantonese cooking technique called 餵味) them with seasoning

 with most dishes in Cantonese cuisine the preparation is 80% of the time

the preparation took about 30 minutes and the cooking took less than 2 with my outdoor mega-BTU wok burner

closeup; BTW I cooked the dish in the wok - I just use the Japanese clay pot as a serving dish as the portion is too big to fit nicely in my largest plates

 the black piece is tree fungus - we like it's crunchy mouth feel

 this is a piece of fish maw (it is fish air bladder fried in sand - yes sand)

a piece of clam meat, shitake, and tree fungus in the spoon; note the tasty juice on the bottom of the clay pot

 a piece of scallop-like muscle of the surf clam; the green vegetable is Chinese celery

Well the dish is so delicious that like my father used to say - you risk swallowing your tongue if you are not careful. It is a quintessential Chinese casual entree 少菜.

These days I only buy Chinese (Asian) celery for the more pungent fragrance and taste. It is very unfortunate that Western celery are sold with all the leaves removed. Asians typically prefer to cook with the leaves and thinner branches.
It may come across to the reader that I am putting down Western celery. It is far form the case. In fact most Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong used to cook with celery imported from United State. Decades ago these celery has a lot more flavors. Overtime they have gotten bigger and tasteless that I suspect due to growth boosting artificial fertilizer. They were not as big and the small branches and leaves were not removed as they typically are now.  For me to cook with Western celery I would either have to buy from farmer's markets or grow them myself.

A very little know fact about Western celery. By keeping it in the refrigerator for a long time it develops more intense flavor as it turn yellow. It was not uncommon that I keep one for a few months.