Water hyacinth has become a delicacy.

Water hyacinth, also known as water lettuce in rural areas, is traditionally used as feed for chickens, ducks, pigs, etc., but in Hanoi, it has become a delicacy, a rare and luxurious dish.Cooking water hyacinth soup, making water hyacinth salad, or stir-frying water hyacinth with meat, beef, shrimp... to create specialties is not something you can just make whenever you want.

As soon as work ended, Ms. Dinh Thi My Van from Yen Ninh (Ba Dinh, Hanoi) rushed on her motorbike to Chau Long market near her house to buy a few hundred grams of beef to stir-fry with water hyacinth flowers. Because of this special dish of stir-fried beef with water hyacinth, she had to drive over 100 km to Nam Dinh just to find the water hyacinth.

Ms. Vân shared that more than a year ago, her family went on a trip to the Mekong Delta. During that trip, she had the opportunity to enjoy dishes made with water hyacinth, such as tilapia hot pot with water hyacinth, stir-fried beef with water hyacinth flowers, or simply stir-fried pork belly with water hyacinth,...

"When we first ate it, everyone was amazed at how delicious it was, wondering what kind of vegetable it was because of its sweet, fragrant taste and refreshing feeling. Later, we asked the tour guide and were very surprised to learn that all the dishes were cooked with water hyacinth, also known as water lettuce in the Mekong Delta," Ms. Vân said. She recalled that when she was a child, she used to see her neighbors harvesting water hyacinth from the pond, chopping it up, and mixing it with bran to feed their ducks, geese, and pigs. She could never have imagined that vegetable could be so delicious.

Water hyacinth, formerly used as feed for pigs, chickens, and ducks, is now sought after by Hanoians as a type of clean, specialty vegetable.

Now, every month, she travels hundreds of kilometers back to her hometown, asking family members to go to lakes, swamps, or abandoned rice paddies to find and pick the youngest water hyacinth stems, which she then brings back to Hanoi to store in the refrigerator and eat gradually. Each time, she fills up sacks with them. On days when she finds water hyacinth flowers, the whole family has a lavish meal.

"This vegetable grows on the water's surface and is harvested from abandoned lakes, swamps, and low-lying rice paddies, so it's guaranteed to be delicious and clean, with no worries about harmful substances. It's also very easy to prepare; just cut it into short pieces about 10cm long, soak it in diluted salt water, then squeeze out the excess water, and you can use it to make soup, salads, or stir-fry it with meat, beef, shrimp, etc. – it's delicious no matter how you prepare it," Ms. Vân shared.

Sharing a similar love for the delicious water hyacinth dish, Ms. Nguyen Hai Binh from Bui Xuong Trach (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) also said that her family eats water hyacinth every week. Some days they make fish soup with water hyacinth, other days they make stir-fried water hyacinth with shrimp. "The whole family is addicted to this dish," she shared.

Water hyacinth is soaked in diluted salt water, then squeezed clean and drained.

However, according to Ms. Binh, in the suburban areas of Hanoi, water hyacinths are abundant, with plants over half a meter long. But she doesn't dare take them home to eat for fear of water pollution. She usually has to ask people from her hometown to go to the fields to collect water hyacinths growing in rivers and canals.

"At first, when I asked my family to collect water hyacinth for us to eat, everyone was wide-eyed and laughed, saying that here people only chop it up to feed pigs, chickens, and ducks, and nobody ever eats it. But my family had to ration every single stalk because we couldn't always get family members to collect it and send it to Hanoi," Ms. Binh said.

In fact, water hyacinth, also known as Japanese water hyacinth, has been used by people to cook dishes like a type of green vegetable. In particular, many restaurants and eateries have even made water hyacinth dishes a regional specialty.

After preparation, duckweed can be stir-fried with shrimp or beef, used in soups, or made into salads.

Speaking with a reporter from VietNamNet, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh (Institute of Biotechnology and Food, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) said that water hyacinth, like other vegetables, can be used as food for humans, livestock, and poultry.

However, Mr. Thinh also noted that when harvesting water hyacinth for cooking, one should avoid picking it from areas with polluted water sources. Such water sources often contain heavy metals, and water hyacinth is a plant that helps purify water. Therefore, the plant will absorb heavy metals and other substances in the water and accumulate them in its stem. Consuming large quantities of this type of water hyacinth also poses a potential health risk due to the heavy metals in the plant being absorbed into the body.

Therefore, duckweed should only be eaten in canals with clean water sources, picking only the young shoots on the water's surface, and remembering to wash them thoroughly during preparation, Mr. Thinh advised.

According to Vietnamnet