Hoàng Lan

Mugwort, is a wild vegetable which has been widely used in Việt Nam because it is not only a very good ingredient to cook tasty dishes with, but it is also popular in traditional medicine to support human health.

Older resident Nguyễn Thị Liên in the northern province of Cao Bằng said the wild mugwort vegetable is, although somewhat bitter with slightly pungent smell, is a wonderful remedy and can be used to cook many tasty dishes. They include fried mugwort with eggs, stewed chicken with mugwort, steamed carp with mugwort, pig's heart with mugwort and mugwort sticky rice cakes.

“These dishes become favourites with a lot of mugwort lovers,” Liên said.

Mugwort vegetable is grown in the wild in Việt Nam. — Photo ntdvn.net

Stewed chicken with mugwort is a particular favourite.

Ingredients to make the dish include a small fowl or black chicken, red dried apple, goji berries, lotus seeds and mugwort. All of these ingredients are stuffed into the chicken and it is steamed it for 3-4 hours until is it is completely soft.

“This dish is very nutritious and can quickly help improve the health of patients, particularly pregnant women,” said Liên.

Apart from stewed chicken, housewives often fried mugwort with eggs for their daily meal or people can enjoy the dish at a stand on pavements or by vendors.

Mugwort stewed with a small chicken or black chicken has enhanced nutrition. — Photo mytour.vn

To make the popular dish, cooks should choose young mugwort leaves, cut them into small pieces, mix them with eggs, and fry them. The dish has the buttery fat of eggs, the creamy taste of cooking oil, and the light bitterness of mugwort dipped in broth mix, chilli, and lemon juice. It is so tasty and great that no one could refuse it, said Liên.

Liên said the Tày ethnic group in the northern provinces of Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn also used mugwort to make unforgettable cakes.

To make the cake, cooks carefully boil the mugwort with pure water to release bitterness. This also helps to maintain the vegetable's green colour.

The boiled mugwort should be ground with done-to-a turn steamed sticky rice. It should be quickly ground until it becomes a smooth green wet powder which is then cut into pieces. The cake’s dumpling includes roasted peanut and powdered sesame with brown sugarcane. The cake is wrapped in fresh banana leaves and has aromatic fragrant from sticky rice mixed with mugwort without any bitterness, said Liên.

Minced mugwort fried with eggs has become a popular dish of many foodies. — Photo mytour.vn

She also related a legend story of the mugwort.

Long long ago, in a mountain village, there had been a beautiful girl named Kim Tuyến who had been married to a man living near her house. They had enjoyed their marriage very much until one day, a mandarin passed by, saw Kim Tuyến tending her garden, he immediately wanted to abduct her although he knew that Tuyến was already married.

He thought of ways to kill her husband and had him arrested. He told Tuyến’s husband that he would be released if he gave the mandarin a piece of rope in grass ash, if not he should be exiled to a remote place. Tuyến’s husband was very upset. He told his wife about mandarin’s punishment.

Tuyến was very angry. She went to her garden, picked a lot of mugwort, dried it and twisted the leaves into the shape of a string, put it on a copper tray and slowly burned it until it became ash but still keep its bound form.

Witnessing the love of the couple and cleverness of the wife, the mandarin finally released Tuyến’s husband home.

Carp stewed with mugwort is a beloved and nutritious dish for pregnant women and weak elderly. — Photo mytour. vn

The story had been repeated times and again. Villagers then named the mugwort locally as ngải cứu or rescue, Liên said.

Herbalist Nông Quang Chứ, from the northern province of Cao Bằng, where mugwort has a bitter flavour but is especially fragrant, said the vegetable is used to effectively treat osteoarthritis pain, particularly backache, by drying it with a little salt and several pieces of fresh ginger and applying it to the painful area.

“I’ve helped many patients with muscle and nerve pains recover by applying burned mugwort on the painful areas," said Chứ, adding that the vegetable is also supportive to help keep skin healthy and protect women’s reproductive health.

The vegetable is encouraged to be used daily to enhance resistance and helps to fight against asthenia, he said. — VNS