What kind of wild vegetable is the net shoot that a person with insomnia craves this bitter vegetable with sour fish sauce?

Saigon is in the transitional season; the rain is becoming less frequent, but occasionally it pours down, leaving people feeling listless, exhausted during the day and restless at night. Waking up in the middle of the night, no matter how hard I try to close my eyes, I can't fall back asleep, tossing and turning, and then I think of my grandmother.

My grandmother passed away almost 20 years ago. My hometown has changed, and the old house no longer has the swaying bamboo grove by the lush green fence.

I've been wandering around Saigon for over 10 years, the daily hustle and bustle sweeping me away, so I rarely remember it except for those sleepless nights spent burning the midnight oil.

The elderly often have trouble sleeping. On nights when the weather changes, hearing the creaking of the bamboo bed means that the next morning, Grandma will be seen trudging to the fence with her basket to pick young shoots of the nettle plant (also known as longan or clustered plant).

Back then, I would trail behind, ostensibly helping carry the basket, but actually waiting for Grandma to pick those ripe, golden, fragrant rambutans for me.

The young shoots of the nettle plant (Passiflora incarnata, Passiflora incarnata - a type of wild vegetable, a local specialty) are a delicious dish and an effective sedative. Boiled nettle shoots dipped in sour fish sauce is a truly delicious dish.

My grandmother used to say that herbs are also medicine, and if you know how to eat them, you won't have to go to the hospital all year round. She trusted nettle vines the most, believing they could treat everything from body aches to insomnia and internal heat. Therefore, she used all the fences around the house to grow nettle vines; they were not only useful during changes in weather but also a familiar ingredient in our family meals.

Young shoots of the nettle plant can be used to make shrimp or meat soup, or stir-fried, but my grandmother usually just boils them and dips them in fish sauce with chopped lemongrass or sour fish sauce.

Fermented shrimp paste is a specialty of Tay Ninh province , made from shrimp and small fish (usually anchovies or bamboo root fish) mixed with salt, brown sugar, and roasted rice powder.

As the name suggests, this type of fermented fish paste has a slightly sour taste but is very flavorful due to the saltiness of the salt and the rich, savory taste of the fish and shrimp. Connoisseurs often enjoy this sour fish paste with raw winged beans or boiled pork, but for my grandmother, it's best paired with young shoots of the nettle plant.

Pure fermented fish sauce is usually a bit salty, so when my grandmother buys it, she often modifies it a little. She peels pineapple, slices it into thin rings, lightly fries it on the stove until both sides are golden brown, then tears it into small pieces and puts it into the jar of fish sauce. After a few days, the pineapple absorbs the fish sauce, and the sauce becomes more flavorful. Before meals, she scoops the fish sauce into a bowl, adds a little sugar, some green peppercorns, and chili peppers, and it's ready.

When I was little, I didn't like eating boiled water spinach because it had a slightly bitter taste. My grandmother had to coax me many times before I would eat it, and then I became addicted. How I miss those old lunches! On the low table by the veranda, the meal was sometimes just a simple plate of bright green boiled water spinach, a bowl of sour fish sauce with red chili, and a bowl of vegetable broth, but everyone in my family would enthusiastically pick at it and dip it in.

The boiled water spinach was crisp, refreshing, slightly bitter, and blended with the rich saltiness of the fish sauce, the light sourness of the pineapple, and a hint of freshness—the plate of vegetables was gone in a flash. At this point, Grandma ladled out half a bowl of the vegetable broth for each person and didn't forget to boast: "This broth is so refreshing! Drink it and you won't need a hat to sleep tonight!"

Tay Ninh sour fish sauce, a delicious dipping sauce used for boiled nettle shoots. Nettle shoots are the young shoots of the nettle vine, also known as passionflower or passionflower – a type of wild vegetable and local specialty.

Many days, even though my stomach was full, I still craved more, so I would pester my grandmother to scrape off the burnt rice crust so I could eat it with the fermented fish paste as a snack.

My grandmother would sprinkle the tiny, fatty, fragrant fish, about the size of a chopstick tip, evenly over the inside of the crispy rice crust before folding it shut. All I had to do was take it to the hammock, lie down, and pretend to eat a Doraemon-themed fried donut.

The netting vines weren't always lush and green, producing a steady stream of shoots for Grandma to pick. When the vines withered and the shoots thinned out, the daily plate of vegetables was replaced with water spinach or sweet potato leaves. Often, even when the weather wasn't bad, perhaps out of longing, Grandma would mention at mealtime: "If only we had netting shoots with sour fish sauce right now, I'd sleep so soundly tonight!"

Growing up, life was full of ups and downs, so even without any unusual weather changes, I would experience long nights of insomnia.

Thinking about all sorts of things, about myself and others, I felt bored and reminisced about the old days, about those refreshing vegetable meals on a hot summer afternoon, and about my grandmother and her familiar saying: "Dipping young shoots in sour fish sauce will keep you awake!"

Net shoots are the young shoots of the net vine plant.

The plant known as Passiflora foetida L., also called Passiflora foetida, is sometimes referred to as Passiflora foetida, or by other names such as Passiflora foetida, Passiflora foetida, or Passiflora foetida in the Thai ethnic group, and by the Tay ethnic group.

Source: https://danviet.vn/dot-luoi-la-ngon-rau-dai-gi-ma-mot-nguoi-kho-ngu-lai-them-rau-dang-dang-nay-cham-mam-chua-20241017235852907.htm