Nearly 30 years ago, I left my hometown of Quang Ngai to study in Saigon. Every day, my roommates and I would eat together in a small alley.
One day, I was suddenly stunned when eating raw vegetables with a very strange and extremely attractive aroma. I searched and discovered that the aroma came from the chopped stems, mixed with other vegetables.
A bunch of celery brought back from Ho Chi Minh City stir-fried with Ly Son garlic
This vegetable impressed me because its aroma did not overpower but blended with other vegetables to create a full-flavored plate of raw vegetables. Through the restaurant owner, we learned that it was water celery (water celery, rice celery, tube celery). A short time later, I returned to my hometown to join the army, my unit was stationed in the red-soil highlands... For a long time, I did not have the opportunity to eat this rustic vegetable.
But the taste of celery still occasionally comes to mind. Then one day, my wife's younger brother who sells noodles in Saigon returned to his hometown and brought me a bunch of green celery with the suggestion: "Stir-fried with Ly Son garlic, it's delicious!"
So I went straight to the kitchen. First, I picked off the leaves and roots and then cut them into bite-sized pieces. The aromatic vegetable reminded me of a meal in Saigon nearly 30 years ago. I gently washed the vegetable and then took it out to drain. I skillfully peeled off the skin of each clove of Ly Son garlic before stir-frying it with the vegetable. Then, I used a knife to crush the garlic and put it in a pan of peanut oil on the stove.
When the oil is hot and the garlic smells fragrant, add the vegetables to the pan with a little salt and stir well with chopsticks. Next, add the remaining crushed garlic and spices to the pan, stir gently and remove from the heat when the vegetables are just cooked. A sweet aroma wafts through the small kitchen.
The stir-fried celery with garlic dish looks very eye-catching. The ivory-white garlic cloves dotted on the green vegetables look like a talented artist's painting of a flock of white storks spreading their wings in the fading afternoon sun. Pick up the vegetables and garlic, dip them in fish sauce, then put them in your mouth to chew the crunchy, deep flavor, extremely refreshing. Both garlic and vegetables have a distinctive smell, a gentle fragrance that captivates the heart.
The sweetness of both the vegetables and the garlic is gentle, lingering on the tip of the tongue as if it doesn't want to leave. After the meal, my wife suddenly hummed: "The scent of celery mixed with the smell of garlic/Makes the rice taste much better than usual...".
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