‘Wild’ vegetables turn gourmet specials

It has been a southern tradition for long that a wide variety of vegetables, leaves, buds and flowers are part of everyday meals, accompanying sausages, braised pork or other meat dishes in various preparations.
The tradition was fostered in the old days by the free availability of many vegetables and flowers that grew wild and uncultivated along village paths, at the edge of rice fields and in land left idle.
With the narrowing of living space as population increases by the millions, these wild vegetables and greens are not within easy reach anymore. Now, one has to purchase them in markets and they have become specialty foods.
Bon bon or river vegetable, a weed found in rice fields that Mekong Delta residents have consumed for a long time, is now a special dish (sautéed) served in restaurants now, and can be found in other parts of the country as well.
Understanding the emerging market demand, farmers in the Mekong delta province of Bac Lieu have been cultivating this plant for 10 years now. When rice prices are down, farmers can earn hundreds of millions of dong from one hectare of bon bon at current prices of VND30,000 a kilogram.
Water lilies that bloom and flourish in ponds and lakes during the rainy season are another edible vegetable. People eat both stems and flowers of this plant. Its skin is peeled and broken into sections and cleaned. A bowl of boiling hot salted fish stew is served with a basket of vegetables in which the sweet taste of water-lily can be made out.
The dot choai vegetable, a climber, grows well in saline-alkaline land like jungles of U Minh Thuong forest in the southern province of Kien Giang and U Minh Ha in Ca Mau Province, as well as the Dong Thap Muoi (Plain of Reeds) region in Dong Thap province in the heart of the Mekong Delta.
Some varieties of dot choai are the choai da (stone choai), choai that grows in the garden and in jungles. Mekong delta residents use the plant that grows in the jungle to make canh chua - Vietnamese sour soup with fish. Rice gruel with bamboo sprouts, dot choai and mushrooms made by Dong Thap Muoi residents is a unforgettable meal. Those who drink alcohol favor having dot choai and other vegetables with fish or eel.
In the flooding season, the Dien Dien flower (sesbania sesban), blooms for several days on spongy plants in fresh water lakes or rivers. The hot yellow flowers grow in racemes – a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate – bloom when the northeast wind begins to blow.
People in the countryside clean the flower and soak it in salted water to make sour vegetables. The flower raw is also eaten raw with a bowl of hot rice vemicelli and salted fish soup, and is a unique meal for visitors to remember.