Taro stem soup, a soup from the memory

A familiar rustic soup of many people in my hometown, familiar to the elderly but little known to the young people today, is taro root soup.

Taro stem soup is a rustic soup that few young people today know - Photo: NVCC

The main ingredient is taro root. If you want a delicious soup, cook it with pork or beef bones. If you don't have any, cook it with freshwater fish, freshwater crabs, snails...

In general, this is a rustic, easy-going country soup, cooked with whatever is available. In addition, add a little broken rice, some Vietnamese coriander or lolot leaves.

In the countryside, around every well there is usually a taro bush. With lots of water, the taro grows very well, growing many shoots.

Take out the basket, pick a bunch of ginger and scrape the outer layer clean, peel into short pieces, wash and drain.

Blanch pork or beef bones in boiling water to reduce the smell, then put them on the stove to simmer. When the bones release their sweet liquid, add a little broken rice and taro. If you don't have broken rice at home, use regular crushed rice instead. Cook for a while until the broken rice buds expand and the taro roots soften.

If cooking with freshwater fish, crabs or snails, add the ingredients at this time and do not need to stew first.

When the soup is thick, the roots are soft, and the rice has expanded, season to taste. Finally, add the sliced ​​​​loot leaves or Vietnamese coriander and turn off the stove. This dish must be sliced ​​​​loot leaves or Vietnamese coriander, not chopped onions. The onions do not match the smell and will not taste good.

Look at the taro before processing - Photo: NVCC

A pot of hot soup, sweet water from the bones of freshwater fish, crabs, and snails. The water is thick because of the blend of broken rice and taro.

And very fragrant, the fragrant smell of lolot leaves or Vietnamese coriander or the fragrant smell of a harmonious whole, of the gentle, elegant scent of the countryside.

No chemicals, elegant fragrance, natural sweetness. Simple natural features, full of rusticity.

Taro stem soup is eaten hot, blown on while eating. It is special because it is neither soup nor porridge, but a blend of soup and porridge.

Can be eaten in any season, rainy season or sunny season, delicious in any season, cool and light on the stomach. Eating taro soup requires very little rice, sometimes you don't need to eat rice because the soup has broken rice.

For example, nowadays, for people who need to lose weight and eat less rice, there are probably few dishes more suitable.

Remembering the rainy and windy days in the countryside, eating whatever was available without any market. Mom told me to go to the well to pick a basket of taro shoots and bring them in to sit and do some washing.

Mom caught some freshwater fish by spreading a net in a clay pot outside. Picked a handful of lolot leaves and chopped them up... Cooked a pot of soup on a rainy day. Hot and fragrant, called the whole family to come eat...

The whole family gathered around the firewood-fired rice pot. Everyone loved the burnt rice. The pot of taro soup steamed with fragrant steam. A cozy, warm place on a rainy day.

Nowadays, in the countryside, few houses still grow taro around wells, and few people sell taro shoots at the market. On hot sunny days and rainy afternoons, my mother's taro shoot soup from long ago suddenly comes back. That is a "delicacy" to me, a native of Thanh, Dien Khanh, Khanh Hoa.

"My mother is a farmer, and I was born in the countryside...". Children born in the countryside sometimes miss and crave taro root soup, hometown soup, soup of memories...

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/canh-ngo-mon-mon-canh-trong-mien-ky-uc-2025102818271092.htm