Ong choy, trakuon, pak boong — these are just some of the names for water spinach, also known as morning glory, an iron-rich plant that’s common in Asian stir-fry dishes and soups.
Open the menu at a traditional Chinese restaurant in Texas or California and a water spinach dish is usually there under the vegetable section, a stir-fry with garlic, chilies and fermented bean curd.
Open a menu in Arizona and more often than not, water spinach is glaringly absent.
The federal government has strict regulations on water spinach, which is considered an invasive weed. Regulations vary by state, but in Arizona, water spinach is banned outright, making it illegal to grow, sell, buy or import, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
That doesn't stop people from trying to get their hands on it, though.
For many families in the Asian American community, water spinach is a dietary staple. But Arizona's restrictions have elevated an otherwise common vegetable into the status of a rare prize.
"My mom did most of the cooking and every time we were able to get our hands on it, which was typically going to California for it, she would make this soup with water spinach," said Staphany Pich, who grew up in the Valley.
"It kinda sucks that we have to travel elsewhere to get it," she lamented.
What to know about water spinach
Water spinach, with its spindly hollow shoots and arrow-shaped leaves, provides a low-cost source of nutrition in parts of Asia, where it grows abundantly in wetlands and rice paddies.
Pakkawalan Pookim lived in Bangkok before moving to the Valley about 12 years ago. She operates a restaurant in Mesa called Thai Time Kitchen where she wishes she could make water spinach a regular menu item.
In Thailand, she liked to stir fry water spinach with garlic. Sometimes she deep-fries it like tempura to eat with som tam sauce, the same sauce uses for Thai papaya salad. She also likes to have water spinach in suki, a hot pot with glass noodles, cabbage and a sukiyaki dipping sauce.
In Arizona, she knows one person who grows water spinach for personal use. It's a far different experience from the abundance she was used to in Thailand.
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In the past, Pich and her family would drive out a couple of times a year to Cambodia Town in Long Beach or Little Saigon in Orange County if they wanted water spinach.
Her family ate water spinach in hot pots, and stir-fried with pork belly and fermented soybeans. Sometimes they ate it raw with prahok k'tis, a fermented fish dip with ground pork.
She recently found the vegetable in an Arizona grocery store — the first and only time she can ever recall seeing water spinach in an Arizona store. She used it to make salaw machu kroeung, a sour and savory Cambodian soup with beef, lemongrass and water spinach, accompanied with rice.
Pich said water spinach reminds her of home.
"Having it is like having a special dish during Christmas or Thanksgiving," she said. "You get it once in a while. It’s not an everyday thing, so it makes it a little more special to have."
Why water spinach is banned in Arizona
Water spinach was introduced to the U.S. mainland in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But the plant’s aggressive nature — it can grow four inches a day — makes it a threat to waterways and native plant species, so USDA put water spinach on the noxious weed list.
Robert Smook, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, confirmed that in the past, state and federal authorities have conducted joint inspections during which they’ve intercepted, confiscated and destroyed illegal water spinach.
As of August 2020, there are no known infestations in Arizona’s waterways, said Andrew Brischke, an agriculture and natural resources expert at the University of Arizona.
Curiously enough, until early 2020, Arizona’s native species of morning glories were also listed as a prohibited weed. Even sweet potatoes were technically illegal to grow because they were in the same genus, Brischke noted.
“I don’t know why natives were on there in the first place,” Brischke said. “It goes back to it could be a nuisance plant. Even in a backyard garden, before too long it could take over your whole garden in less than a couple years. They’re just very difficult to get rid of.”
Regulators worry about the potential for water spinach seeds to spread and lose containment, he said. Farmers in California, Texas and Florida can apply for a state permit to grow and handle water spinach, but there's no state-run permitting in Arizona. Those interested in Arizona could apply for a federal permit, but it's a fairly rigorous process, Brischke said.
The Arizona Department of Agriculture's Plant Services Division is not aware of anyone in the state who's pursued a federal permit, Smook wrote in an email.
'I didn't think it was anything special'
Michael Lin works as a food tour guide specializing in Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine in the San Gabriel Valley, the region east of Los Angeles known for its large Asian American population.
Lin described water spinach, or kong xin cai, as a beloved vegetable in his community, as well an affordable food for elders who rely on social security and have limited incomes. Southern California has such bountiful access to water spinach that it would be upsetting if they couldn't get a hold of it anymore, Lin said.
"I didn’t think it was anything special," Lin said. "It was definitely common in our household, but to me, it was the definitely the bridge to eating other vegetables."
He didn't like broccoli, cauliflower or asparagus as a kid, so his family fed him water spinach instead. The hollow stems give it a satisfying, cacophonous crunch that made it fun to eat when he was young, Lin said. Stir-frying it with fermented tofu or bean curd gives it an extra salty, pungent aroma.
"Almost everyone I know, especially for those of us Asian Americans who have moved out, when you finally get to have a sit-down meal, whether at home with your parents or at Chinese restaurant, that’s what people almost always default order," Lin said.
"At least from my peers and family members, we definitely need to have our kong xin cai. It reminds us of what our parents made for us when we were kids."
Reach the reporter at Priscilla.Totiya@azcentral.com. Follow @priscillatotiya on Twitter and Instagram.
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