About the saying "water spinach is the wife of crab soup"

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - The proverb "Rau bo la canh cua" is recorded in many documents and dictionaries. The dictionary of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs (Professor Nguyen Lan) explains: "Rau bo la canh cua" (Rau bo is a fern that grows in moist soil, no one grows it, but it is edible). It means that rau bo is suitable for cooking crab soup".

Malabar spinach cooked with crab soup,

The half-dead come back to life and eat.

(Folk song)

The proverb "Rau bo la canh cua" is recorded in many documents and dictionaries. The dictionary of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs (Professor Nguyen Lan) explains: "Rau bo la canh cua" (Rau bo is a fern that grows in moist soil, no one grows it, but it is edible). It means that rau bo is suitable for cooking crab soup".

In fact, although they belong to the same fern family, the shape of the Marsilea quadrifolia plant is not at all like a fern. As explained by Professor Nguyen Lan, it is easy to imagine that Marsilea quadrifolia is a fern that usually grows on the edge of bushes or under the forest canopy.

Malabar spinach belongs to the Malabar spinach family, fern order, not a "fern species". Malabar spinach also has Chinese names such as four-leaf clover (四葉草), or four-leaf clover (四葉菜), because each leaf is divided into four small pieces; it also has the Chinese name field clover (田字草), because the leaves are divided into four pieces, shaped like the word field 田.

In particular, rau bo is rau tan in the word tan tao 蘋藻.

Tan tao or tao tan is a compound word of Chinese origin, which originally refers to two types of aquatic plants, rau tan (grass) and rau tao (algae, algae in general). Ancient people often picked rau tan and rau tao as offerings. The Book of Songs (Chieu Nam - Thai Tan) has the sentence: “Vu di thai tan? Nam gian chi tan; vu di thai tan? vu bi hanh lao” (Then to pick rau tan/ On the shore, in the Southern mountain stream/ Then to pick rau tao/ In that floating area); Trinh Huyen commented: “In ancient times, three months before getting married, if the Ancestral Temple was still there, women were taught at the Palace, if the Ancestral Temple was gone, they were taught at the Ancestral Temple. They were taught about the four virtues: virtue, speech, beauty, and work. After teaching, they would make offerings. The offerings, for life, were fish, for vegetables, were rau tan and rau tao. At this time, women had become virtuous and filial people.” [Original text: 蘋藻 1. 蘋與藻.皆水草名.古人常采作祭祀之用. “詩‧召南‧采蘋”: “于以采蘋? 南澗之濱; 于以采藻?于彼行潦” 漢 鄭玄 箋: “古者婦人先嫁三月,祖廟未毀,教于公宮,祖廟既毀,教于宗室.教以婦德,婦言,婦容,婦功.教成之祭,牲用魚,芼用蘋藻,所以成婦順也– Great Chinese Dictionary].

Later, "tan tao" was used to refer to women with good qualities. In Vietnamese, "tan tao" or "tao tan" refers to women who are hard-working, diligent, and take care of the house in a difficult and deprived life.

Back to the saying "Rau bo is the wife of crab soup".

Summer with alternating sunshine and rain is the season of fatty field crabs and young green Malabar spinach. Crab soup cooked with Malabar spinach is not only very delicious and aromatic, but according to folk medicine, it also has the effect of treating inflammation, cooling, and calming the nerves for people with insomnia and difficulty sleeping. Therefore, there is a saying that Malabar spinach is cooked with crab soup, and the half-dead come back to life to eat.

In the past, farmers often harvested Malabar spinach growing in fallow fields or ditches to feed pigs. However, this is still a vegetable for the poor as mentioned above. The agricultural encyclopedia gives us some specific information about Malabar spinach as follows:

“In Vietnam, Malabar spinach grows wild in humid places, shallow rice fields, and rice seedlings. The stems and leaves are used as pig feed, fed raw or cooked with bran. Malabar spinach has a high protein content (4.6% in fresh vegetables) compared to other vegetables and a significant amount of vitamin C (760mg%). It is a folk medicine to treat swelling, pain, snake bites, and is a diuretic when boiled and drunk.”

The book Vietnamese Medicinal Plants and Herbs (Professor Do Tat Loi) also states, “Rau bo belongs to the Marsileaceae family, the Hydropterides order... In some places, Vietnamese people pick it to eat raw. Sometimes they pick it, roast it until golden brown or dry it, and boil it to make a concentrated drink as a cooling medicine to clear the urinary tract, treat leucorrhea, vaginal discharge, and insomnia. In some places, they also pound the fresh plant, squeeze the juice to drink to treat snake venom, and apply the residue to swollen and painful areas, swollen breasts, and blocked milk ducts.”

Thus, it can be seen that the reason why people compare Rau bo to crab soup's wife is because Rau bo is very suitable for cooking crab soup, it is both delicious and a folk remedy.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ve-cau-rau-bo-la-vo-canh-cua-244583.htm