One of my favorite Vietnamese content creators recently complained that as an international student living in Germany, she has a difficult time finding green vegetables to fulfill her Vietnamese diet. Now, some of you may think of the typical side salad often served with western meals and think: "What is she talking about? How much greens does she need?" The answer, and I can confirm as a Vietnamese person, is A LOT more than that, my friend. A LOT more than that. Let me explain....

You see, one of the indispensable components in every Vietnamese family meal is "Rau Xào," which is just a generic term for anything and everything green we can find growing in our backyard, sautéed in a little bit of oil, garlic, and seasoning. (Pictured here is a plate of "Xào" radish greens that I harvested from my backyard). The other components being: steamed jasmine rice, a braised dish (Đồ Kho), and a soup (Canh). You cannot omit any of those 4 components from a Vietnamese family meal.

And I've spoken before that up until recent years, due to the lack of economic resources, Vietnamese meals often compensated for the lack of animal proteins (a luxury) by piling on tons and tons of greens and squashes - the two most abundant ingredients for the country's climate. You can serve a Vietnamese meal with no meat and no one would bat an eye. But if you serve a meal with no greens, we'll look at you like you were raised by aliens. 

Greens are such an integral part of our culture that we literally have songs and poems centered around them. The most immortal of them all is the heart-wrenching song "Còn Thương Rau Đắng Mọc Sau Hè" or "Still Love the Bitter Greens Growing on the Back Porch." And no, the song is not literally about bitter greens, but rather the bitter greens are used as a symbolism of childhood nostalgia. As the bittersweet chorus goes:

🎵"Please let me relive the old days of my careless childhood

Let me run in the rain on that worn out road

Summer sun rays, please stop being sad

So I can sit and reminisce the green bamboo bush

Wrapping around the memory-filled sky

Oh, how I suddenly crave "canh" cooked with

The bitter greens growing on the back porch."🎵

So yes, sis, I get why you miss the greens. I get you 100%.