M'nong people live closely with the mountains and forests. Therefore, they consider the fruits in the wild as an produces and can be processed into dishes or precious prescription. Chor Vegetable (Named as according to M'nong people) is a familiar wild vegetable of the people in here, it is not only an own special food, but also is valuable medicine for people.
There are so many names of Chor vegetable, such as the spiny-lipped, the prickly – eared, the thorny tree, the crayfish tree. The plants often grow along pond banks, streams, in semi-submerged environments. The trunk is short, bulging and growing limply above the ground (often called as Chor Bulb). The roots go deeply into the ground. The flowers of the spiny dendrites rise highly above the leaves, the flower stalk is round, the flower inflorescence is a mass of drum-shaped inclusions, fillwed with many flowers around… The leaves are shaped separated sheaths, there are many small spines on the edges and back of the stalk. Young ones are soft and when they become old, the leaf stalks will get into sharper.
M'nong people is harvesting Chor Vegetable on riverside and streams
In order to have delicious food, processed from prickly lipped vegetables, people often choose to harvest them from young buds. At that time, leaves and sheaths are still young, not thorns, and crunchy taste. Young buds are usually used for dishes such as fried, boiled, pickled or cooked in sour soup. When Chor Vegetable have so many young buds, the ethnic people will collect and dry them, keep them on kitchen guard to preserve for the whole year. In heavy rains time, they can't pick wild vegetables, they will bring the buds and dried with young leaves, soak them in water to soften, bloom evenly, and cook soup or fry. Vegetable soup is cooked together with meat will be delicious. M'nong people often use Chor Vegetables to dry with fried fish, especially anchovies, This dish have a unique taste, depleting a lots of rice on rainy days.
Chor Vegetable and young leaves, drying time for using of whole year.
Nowadays, many M'nong families love to use the buds and young leaves of Chor vegetable as a salad mixture. After picking vegetables, they are blanched in boiling water, then soarked with water for about 1 hour to release the viscous and bitter substances in the vegetables. Then, draining and cutting into small pieces. Vegetables are often mixed with boiled garden chickens. Chicken is shredded and mixed with pre-cooked vegetables, adding some salt, seasoning, chili and herbs. When eating, the salad has a slightly sour and a little bit of bitter taste of Chor vegetable, the sharp pungent taste of the chili, the aroma of vegetables, the sweetness of the chicken blends together into a fragrant, attractive flavor. According to the experience of people in here, the Chor Buds is also used to cook as cool down drinking water, effectively curing skin sores.
Dried Chor vegetable fried together with anchovies is favorite dish of M'nong people.