Everything about Ipomoea Aquatica totally explained
Ipomoea aquatica is a semi-
aquatic tropical plant grown as a
leaf vegetable. Its precise natural distribution is unknown due to extensive cultivation, with the species found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world.
Common names include
water spinach,
swamp cabbage,
water convolvulus,
water morning-glory,
kangkung (
Indonesian,
Malay),
kangkong (
Tagalog),
eng chai (
Hokkian),
tangkong (
Cebuano),
kang kung (
Sinhalese),
trawkoon (
Khmer: ត្រកូន),
pak boong (in Thai: ผักบุ้ง) (
Thai),
rau muống (
Vietnamese),
kongxincai,
home sum choy (
Hakka), and
ong choy or
tung choi (
Cantonese pronunciation of, ngônkcôi; pinyin: wéngcài).
Ipomoea aquatica grows in
water or on moist
soil. Its stems are 2-3 m or more long, hollow, allowing them to float, and these root at the nodes. The
leaves vary from sagittate (typical) to lanceolate, 5-15 cm long and 2-8 cm broad. The
flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3-5 cm diameter, usually white in colour.
Cultivation and culinary uses
It is most commonly grown in
East and
Southeast Asia. Because it flourishes naturally in waterways and doesn't require much if any care, it's used extensively in Malay and Chinese cuisine, especially in
rural or
kampung (village) areas. It isn't to be mistaken with
watercress, which often grows in similar situations.
It has also been introduced to
United States of America where its high growth rate caused it to become an environmental problem, especially in Florida and Texas. It has been officially designated by the USDA as a "
noxious weed." Despite this ominous label, the plant isn't in any way harmful when consumed ("noxious" is, in this context, a legal term denoting the plant's harmfulness to native plants). In fact, the plant is similar to
spinach in its nutritional benefits.
The vegetable is a common ingredient in Southeast Asian dishes. In
Singapore,
Indonesia and
Penang, the leaves are usually
stir fried with both
Malay and
Chinese seasonings, including
chile peppers,
garlic,
ginger, dried
shrimp paste (
belacan) and other
spices. In
Penang and
Ipoh, it's cooked with
cuttlefish and a sweet and spicy sauce. During the
Japanese Occupation of Singapore in
World War II, the vegetable grew remarkably well and easily in many areas, and become a popular wartime crop.
In Chinese cuisine, there are numerous ways of preparation, but a simple and quick
stir-fry either plain or with minced
garlic is probably the most common. In Cantonese cuisine, a popular variation adds preserved
beancurd - a method known in the
Mandarin language as
furu (
pickled tofu). In Hakka cuisine, yellow
bean paste is added, sometimes along with fried
shallots. The vegetable is also extremely popular in
Taiwan, where it grows well.
In
Thailand it's frequently stir fried with oyster sauce and shrimp paste. It can be eaten raw with Lao
green papaya salad.
In
Vietnam, it once served as a staple vegetable of the poor (known as
rau muống). In the south, the stems are
julienned into thin strips and eaten with many kinds of noodles, and used as a garnish as well. Over the course of time,
Ipomoea aquatica has developed into being an ingredient for many daily vegetable dishes of Vietnamese cuisine as a whole.
Rau muống is one of the tastes that remind Vietnamese people of their simple and peaceful rural hometown life.
(Translation: "Leaving far and far away, we're nostagic much / Remembering
rau muống soup as well as
eggplant with Tương(.")
In the
Philippines, it's usually sauteed in cooking oil,
onions, garlic, vinegar, and
soy sauce. This dish is called "
adobong kangkong". It is also a common leaf vegetable in sour fish and meat stews like "
sinigang".
There is concern that,
eaten raw, the plant could transmit
fasciolopsiasis, a
parasite of humans and pigs.
Cultural references
There is a belief in
Chinese culture that discourages extensive consumption of
Ipomoea aquatica as a
staple food crop (in contrast to
rice) with the explanation that the hollow stem makes the person weak and hollow like the plant, although this belief doesn't advocate refraining from eating the plant entirely. But the
elderly, for example, are discouraged from consuming it. This belief probably derived from ancient observations following attempts to replace consumption of rice with the relatively resilient
Ipomoea aquatica during times of food shortages and
war and noting loss of muscle strength, probably due to the fact that
Ipomoea aquatica contains less
food energy than rice. Despite this, it's a common vegetable in Asian cuisine.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ipomoea Aquatica'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://ipomoea_aquatica.totallyexplained.com">Ipomoea aquatica Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
