Even though I have lived in the city for more than ten years, I consider myself fortunate to have been born and reared in the countryside.
I've had a strong connection to nature since I was a small child. Growing vegetables with my mother every morning or traveling to the paddy fields in the afternoon were the best part of my childhood. My passion for the rural environment is so great that when it comes to vacations, I always want to return to my hometown, despite the availability of various forms of amusement in the city.
I paid my hometown a visit last week, and one morning I struggled with a lie-in to get up extremely early. Then I took a walk along the pond, admiring the lush green veggies that had sprouted after a rainy night. It was such a pleasant calmness that I had longed for.
Fortunately, I had my phone with me at that moment, which allowed me to capture the greens in the early morning silence. I'm going to show you some of the common veggies found in the countryside, some of which are unfamiliar even to people in my nation.
It seems that every type of plant is edible to the locals in that lovely rural location. Have you ever seen any type of vegetables like this?
This is the young leaves of "cây keo". It made me badly miss the old days when I would hold a bowl of braised fish rice in one hand and a handful of such leaves in the other.
The mature plants look like this
Malabar spinach
"Rau dền", a good ingredient for making vegetable soup.
This is called "Lá Cách". People in the countryside often use it to wrap a special type of pancake named Bánh xèo. Interestingly, it is quite rare and most city dwellers have no idea about it.
You may think it is a type of wild plant. You are right, but the thing is it is often boiled, and local people have it with meat and rice. As suggested by the locals, this type of plant is useful for getting good sleep.
"Lá Thơm", a type of plant with a very pleasant strong smell used as herbs for curry. For me, I love to have it fresh with rice
Asian pennywort that covered a large area of land.
"Sương sâm leaf jelly". The fresh leaves are usually ground and crushed with a certain amount of water. The mixture will then be condensed into jelly after an hour or two. Nothing is better than having a glass of Sương sâm leaf jelly added with sugar and ground ice on hot days
Katuk, a wonderful source of Vitamin C
What fresh young Katuk sprouts!
Fresh chives
This special type of chili is harvested when the fruits are green. Being less strong compared to the flavor of the red chilies, they are my favorite ones.
Pandan, which has fragrant leaves. a wonderful ingredient for desserts such as flan or jelly
Just like its name, "Rau đắng", this tiny-leave plant has a bitter taste but provides a good amount of fiber and antioxidants. It can be boiled or used for a vegetable recipe. I myself love to have it fresh for fish porridge.
So, you have just had a journey around a green corner in a rural area. Have you been fallen in love with it as much as I do? The scenery with all the wild plants and vegetables has always been so close and friendly to my heart.
Thanks for visiting my blog
Best regards,
Hana
I think this one is similar to the one that we call "Papait" which is edible too (we always combine it with tomatoes).
I have just done some searching for " papait" on Google, but there are a lot of suggestions for the images. Is papait bitter, afterglow?
Yes, it is bitter. I think Papait is not a popular/common vegetable, I think only us "Ilocanos" eat it in our country.
By the way, I have done a search on Google using the keywords "papait ilocano delicacy" and it returned significant results here's an example https://pepaysfoodiesandtravels.blogspot.com/2013/03/papait.html
And you can see my search result here https://www.google.com/search?q=papait+ilocano+delicacy&oq=papait+ilocano+delicacy&aqs=chrome..69i57.8213j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
So, I guess yours and mine are from the same family with the taste being relatively the same but different appearance.
I think so too.
Many same plants here. I have pandan, jelly, chilies, and more! But I have no wild chives:(
That's great @anggreklestari, and are those plants popular in the countryside in your country?
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