Health & Life

“The Wild Shrub with a Bitter Twist: Embracing Nature’s Unique Delights in Urban Havens”

This wild vegetable thrives in damp environments and is typically found in canals, ditches, streams, marshes, or white sandy beaches. In recent years, it has become a delicacy sought after by city dwellers.

Administrator

29 September, 2024

Water spinach, also known as Bacopa monnieri, is a perennial herb with a creeping growth habit. All parts of the plant are smooth and hairless, with a glossy appearance.

While its name hints at a bitter taste, water spinach is a wildly popular ingredient in Vietnamese cuisine.

This hardy plant is native to the canals, ditches, streams, marshes, and white sandy beaches of Vietnam, particularly in the northern and southern regions.

Locals used to forage for water spinach, incorporating it into their daily meals. Due to its abundance, it was even fed to pigs and chickens.

“Water spinach has a distinct bitter taste and a crisp texture. During the season, one could easily fill a basket by foraging along the canals and ditches. It is best cooked in a fish soup or porridge. I remember my mother used to make a delicious porridge with snakehead fish and water spinach. At first, my siblings and I didn’t like it because of its bitterness. But after a while, we grew to love its unique flavor.

Preparing this dish is quite laborious. The snakehead fish is cleaned, scaled, and gutted, then boiled and deboned. The rice is toasted and cooked into a porridge with the fish broth. During cooking, oyster mushrooms are added to the porridge. The fish meat is marinated for 10 minutes and then simmered with the porridge for another 5 minutes. When serving, the porridge is topped with water spinach or mixed directly into the hot porridge. This dish is a specialty of the Mekong Delta region,” shared Ms. Huong from Sa Dec town in Dong Thap province.

Snakehead fish porridge with water spinach, a delicacy of the Mekong Delta region.

Once a humble rural dish, water spinach is now sold in online markets and specialty produce stores for up to VND 60,000 per kilogram. It has also made its way into the menus of Southern Vietnamese restaurants as a unique herb, captivating diners with its intriguing bitterness.

Recognizing its economic value, some households have started large-scale cultivation of water spinach to supply the market. This plant thrives in sunny conditions and requires no fertilizer.

Water spinach is easy to cultivate and can be harvested year-round, providing a stable income for many farmers.

“Water spinach can be harvested throughout the year. After harvesting, I sell it to traders who distribute it to various provinces or local markets. Since the plant is fragile and prone to bruising, careful handling and packaging are essential,” shared Ms. Hoa, a water spinach farmer from Dong Thap.