Water fern has become a specialty

Water hyacinth, also known as water hyacinth in the countryside, is used as food for chickens, ducks, pigs, etc., but in Hanoi, water hyacinth has become a specialty, a hard-to-find luxury dish.Cooking water fern soup, making water fern salad or stir-frying water fern with meat, beef, shrimp... becomes a specialty that you can't have just by wanting it.

As soon as she got off work, Ms. Dinh Thi My Van in Yen Ninh (Ba Dinh, Hanoi) hurriedly rode her motorbike to Chau Long market near her house to buy a few ounces of beef to stir-fry with water fern. Because of this specialty dish of stir-fried water fern with beef, she had to drive 100 km to Nam Dinh to find water fern.

Ms. Van shared that more than a year ago, her family traveled to the West. During that trip, she enjoyed dishes made from water fern, such as water fern tilapia hotpot, water fern stir-fried with beef, or simply stir-fried pork belly with water fern,...

"When we first ate, everyone kept praising how delicious it was. We didn't know what kind of vegetable it was, but it had a sweet, fragrant taste and a cool feeling. After asking the tour guide, we were very surprised to find that all the dishes were cooked with water hyacinth, which is called water hyacinth in the West," said Ms. Van. She remembered when she was a child, she would go to her neighbor's house to play, and she would see them scooping water hyacinth from the pond, chopping it up, and mixing it with bran to feed the geese, ducks, and pigs, but she couldn't imagine that vegetable could be so delicious.

Water fern was previously used as food for pigs, chickens, ducks and geese, but is now sought after by Hanoians as a special clean vegetable.

Now, every month, she travels hundreds of kilometers back to her hometown, asking her family to go to lakes, swamps or abandoned fields to pick the youngest water hyacinths and bring them back to Hanoi to store in the refrigerator to eat gradually. Each time, she takes several sacks and fills them up. Whenever she finds more water hyacinths, the whole family has a sumptuous meal.

"This vegetable grows on the water surface, and is taken from lakes, swamps, and abandoned low-lying fields, so it is guaranteed to be delicious and clean, without worrying about being toxic. It is also very easy to prepare, just cut it into short pieces about 10cm long, then soak it in diluted salt water, then squeeze it to drain the water and it can be used to cook soup, make salad or stir-fry with meat, beef, shrimp,... it will be delicious in any way," Ms. Van shared.

Also sharing the same hobby of eating delicious water fern, Ms. Nguyen Hai Binh in Bui Xuong Trach (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) also said that her family eats water fern every week. One day she makes fish soup with water fern, another day she makes water fern stir-fried with shrimp. "The whole family is addicted to this dish," she shared.

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

However, according to Ms. Binh, in the suburban areas of Hanoi, water hyacinth is everywhere, with water hyacinth plants over half a meter long. But she does not dare to take water hyacinth there to eat because she is afraid of water pollution. She often has to ask people from the countryside to go to the fields to collect water hyacinth living in rivers and canals.

"At first, when I asked my family to go get water fern to eat, everyone laughed and said that people here only get it to chop up for pigs, chickens, ducks and geese, and no one ever eats it. However, my family has to eat every single piece of water fern because we can't always ask our family to get it for us and send it to Hanoi," said Ms. Binh.

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

After being processed, water fern can be stir-fried with shrimp, beef, cooked in soup or made into salad.

Talking to PV. VietNamNet, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duy Thinh (Institute of Biotechnology and Food, Hanoi University of Science and Technology) said that water fern, like other vegetables, can be used as food for humans, livestock and poultry.

However, Mr. Thinh also noted that when picking water hyacinth to prepare dishes, avoid picking in areas with polluted water sources. Because in such areas, the water often contains heavy metals, and water hyacinth is a type that has the effect of cleaning water. Accordingly, water hyacinth will absorb heavy metals plus other substances in the water and accumulate in the body. People who eat a lot of that type of water hyacinth also have the potential risk of getting sick because the heavy metals contained in the water hyacinth are metabolized into the body.

Therefore, you should only eat duckweed living in canals with clean water sources, pick young duckweed shoots on the water surface, and remember to wash them thoroughly when preparing them, Mr. Thinh recommends.

According to Vietnamnet