Stir-Fried Spinach with Charred Garlic

My all-time favorite meal in New York City’s Chinatown (in a restaurant now defunct) was a pan-fried flounder so crisp that the bones were edible, and this slippery dish of garlic-tinged spinach. If you got there on a Tuesday night at about nine, the cook on duty would always char the garlic. If the garlic wasn’t burnt, the dish had no panache.

• Loose, fresh spinach in clusters is best here. Avoid the bagged variety, if possible, and look for bunches of lively l