Country vegetables are associated with country people.

Pennywort (Centella asiatica) is a familiar dish in rural meals, possessing all three qualities: delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive. Well, not inexpensive, but inexpensive, requiring only a little effort to harvest. Back then, in my family, we didn't have to buy pennywort at the market. My mother would go to the fields, see a patch of pennywort by the edge of the rice paddies, and pick it. In the evening, we'd have a bowl of fragrant, sweet pennywort soup. Her daughters followed suit, and whenever they went to the fields to plant rice seedlings, cross the river to herd cattle, or harvest beans, they would pick pennywort whenever they saw it.

Pennywort (Centella asiatica) is a familiar dish in rural meals, possessing all three qualities: delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive. (Illustrative image from the Internet)

In our humble home, my mother often cooked pennywort soup. The best was pennywort soup with shrimp. The golden-brown cooked shrimp mixed with the fresh green leaves reduced the bitterness and enhanced the sweet, refreshing taste of the vegetable. If shrimp were unavailable, lean meat could be substituted. If we were vegetarian, she would cook pennywort soup with mushrooms, which was also delicious. Especially on hot, sunny afternoons, a bowl of pennywort soup would cool us down. Pennywort soup was fragrant, delicious, and light. After a tiring day working under the sun, the whole family would almost neglect rice, but they would slurp up the pennywort soup. My father said pennywort soup was simple yet delicious; just looking at it made you feel cool. Yes, pennywort is indeed very cooling. Back then, there wasn't as much information about the uses of vegetables and fruits as there is now, but based on folk experience, everyone in the countryside knew that pennywort was cooling, helping to cleanse the body, aid digestion, and strengthen the body. To maximize the beneficial effects of pennywort, meals often include this vegetable as a change of pace. It can be eaten raw, boiled, or blended into a juice. Pennywort juice is an extremely effective cooling drink. Just pennywort juice with sugar and a little ice will make a hot summer afternoon less harsh. Back then, we didn't have blenders, refined white sugar, and pure ice cubes like we do now. We'd pick pennywort, wash it, pound it in a mortar, strain out the pulp, add sugar (homemade brown sugar), and some ice cubes, and voilà, a large thermos of delicious and nutritious drink. Because the leaves were pounded by hand, the juice had a slightly bitter smell, but that was okay; it was still incredibly delicious, and you'd crave more after drinking it. Since childhood, I've wondered about the name "pennywort." Does "mother" have anything to do with the image of a hardworking mother? Later, as I grew up, I came to understand that the name is arbitrary, without basis or reason, and sometimes even arbitrary, making it difficult to explain. We only know that pennywort grows in every rural area, and whenever we hear its name, the image of a hardworking mother comes to mind.

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