Wild vegetables

The emotions of more than thirty years ago flooded back, the first rain of the season on the green dike of wild bitter vegetables. The young, plump shoots grew abundantly on both sides of the fields, my sisters and I were free to pick them, this kind of thing only needed to be brought home, washed and eaten, no need to pick them up again. In my hometown, in addition to rice, fish, shrimp... nature also favored wild vegetables, although not grown, just stepping out of the door was enough green vegetables for the whole family to eat to their heart's content. My mother occasionally went to the market to buy pork, staying at home for two weeks still had simple but delicious meals, a series of unforgettable peaceful memories.

There are some vegetables that if you don't know, you will think they are grass. The menu of wild vegetables for two weeks is not repeated, very rich and diverse, especially during the rainy season. My mother said that wild vegetables contain many traditional Vietnamese medicines that are very good for health, so my sisters and I just kept growing them without getting sick. Now, some wild vegetables are no longer available, but the flavor is still on the tip of the tongue...

First, I would like to introduce to you the Malabar spinach, this vegetable grows semi-aquatically on the edge of the rice field, pretty like clover, similar to tamarind but not sour but sweet like Malabar spinach and smells like fish mint. My mother often cooks Malabar spinach soup with perch, very delicious, it has been a long time since I have enjoyed this soup, eating raw Malabar spinach with braised fish sauce is also wonderful. In addition, it can also be dried and made into tea to drink to cool the body, promote urination, treat itching and prickly heat.

Mom went to the market to buy a big piece of pork belly to boil, went to the garden to pick ripe papaya from the tree to mix with shrimp paste that Dad made himself, then picked wild mustard greens and moon mustard greens in front of the house to eat with it. These two types have a characteristic aroma like the aroma of traditional medicine, with a bit of the pungent scent of grass mixed with soil. This is also a gift from nature, growing naturally in the grass without having to be planted, my Dad said it was a gift from God: both healthy and cool, very medicinal. The three of us picked a big basket, one part to eat raw, two parts to cook with dried shrimp and meat broth, and we had a delicious meal right away. The day Dad cut his hand, he picked wild mustard greens, chewed them, and applied them to stop the bleeding immediately and the wound healed quickly.

My squash trellis was full of bright yellow flowers swaying in the sun, bees and butterflies flocked to it, the clusters of buds were plump and round, the female squash flowers were left to bear fruit while my father picked the male squash flowers to eat, the young shoots were also picked. Mom stir-fried squash flowers with shrimp that my father had just poured in, it was so fresh and delicious, biting into a piece of shrimp was sweet and chewy with the crunchy, rich, fragrant flavor of squash buds, the squash shoots were sweet and crunchy. Mom picked vinegar leaves from the porch, cooked them with fish eggs, added basil leaves and had a hot and sour soup.

The crabs were destroying the rice fields, so I carried a bucket and followed my father to the fields to catch crabs. My father made a long iron rod, bent one end about two centimeters, and walked along the edge of the field to find crab holes. My father said: when you go into the hole and hear a "clucking" sound, there are crabs, just take them out and put them in the bucket. While my father was catching crabs, I picked vegetables for my mother to cook mixed vegetable soup.

How can I list all the vegetables in my hometown: rau reu, rau trai, rau ma, rau bo, ma tien, ma de, rau cua, rau ngo, rau dang dat, rau dang dong, rau ngo om mam, rau bong bong, rau nhut, rau mung, so dua flower, lotus flower, long tru, bamboo shoots, gotu kola, Malabar spinach, amaranth, spiny amaranth, custard apple shoots, longan shoots, bitter melon shoots, sweet potato shoots, squash shoots, pumpkin shoots, luffa shoots, watermelon, banana flower, nang bop, giang leaves, cach leaves, lolot leaves, vinegar leaves, coc coc shoots, mango shoots, cashew shoots, Xop shoots, Tra shoots, Bang lang shoots, guava shoots, cat loi leaves, mustard greens, moon cabbage, mangrove fruit, cashew fruit, young mango... Not to mention the garden of rau ma I planted.

Wild vegetables are indispensable when eating braised fish sauce or banh xeo, banh cong, without all of these flavors, the taste is not good. Having been away from home for nearly thirty years, the rustic flavors are always with me along with nostalgia, they appear in my dreams... Every time I visit home, I always enjoy the flavors of the past, I feel like I am back in my childhood. Wild vegetables, the flavors that grow from the soil, from the water, have nurtured our souls with our homeland, our roots.

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