VietNamNet Bridge – Many species of flowers like dien dien, so dua or mountain-ebony are beautiful, but they are also nutritious.

1. Mountain-ebony

Visiting the Northwest in March you will see a whole forest of white mountain-ebony flowers. Mountain-ebony flowers are as shy and humble as young women, which only bloom after peach and plum blossoms have faded.

The beautiful and fragile flowers can be processed to become tasty and attractive dishes. Usually local ethnic Thai women pick mountain-ebony flowers to cook or to sell in the market as fresh vegetables.

Mountain-ebony flowers can be fried with bitter bamboo shoots. The taste of this dish is the bitterness of bamboo shoot and the sweet and fleshy taste of mountain-ebony.

The Thai women also mix mountain-ebony flowers with minced meat and spices to stuff fish. They also use the flower to make soup, salad or to fry with pork, etc.

2 . Fragrant cynanthe

In the summer, fragrant cynanthe flowers bloom, with a cool fragrance. The flower is also a nutritious food, with a cooling effect.

Fragrant cynanthe flowers can be used to cook many dishes such as lobster soup, fish soup or fried with other foods such as beef, seafood, chicken, etc. But the  most simple dish from this flower is Fragrant cynanthe flower with crab.

3. So dua flowers

For people in southern Vietnam, this species of flower can be used in a lot of dishes. The white or purple flowers, which usually bloom from October to December, can be ornamental plants or vegetables.

In a season of so dua flowers, people often pick fresh flowers from early morning to process into soups with snakehead fish, shrimp or sour soup.

More simply, the flower is often boiled and served with mam kho quet (a special sauce), which is the favorite of many people in summer.

4. Squash flowers

Many people only know dishes that are made from pumpkin or squash but few know that pumpkin and squash flowers are also a very tasty dish. The flowers are usually used in soup or fried with pork and beef and even steamed. The simplest preparation is boiling the flowers and serving with fish sauce.

5. Dien dien flowers

Each year in the flood season, the southern people pick dien dien flowers from the field or canals to cook soup or make salad.

Pha Le