"Sauropus androgynus, also known as katuk, star gooseberry, or sweet leaf, is a shrub grown in some tropical regions as a leaf vegetable. In Chinese it is called mani cai (马尼菜); in Japan it is called amame shiba (アマメシバ); in Malay it is called cekur manis, sayur manis, asin-asin or cangkok manis (in Bruneian malay);[4][5] in Thai it is called pak waan (or pak waan ban to distinguish it from Melientha suavis, a completely different plant); in Vietnamese, it is called rau ngót; in the Philippines, it is called Chinese Malunggay and in Kerala, India it is called madhura cheera. "(Wikipedia)
While most people enjoy the stir fried young leaves of the mani cai or cangkok manis at home or in restaurants, many would not know that there are actually two basic types of this vegetable - there is the big leaf type and there is the small leaf type.
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| Young seeds of cangkok manis |
There are some interesting recipes made from this vegetable:
a) Mee Hoon Cangkok Manis
b) Cangkok Manis soup with egg
c) Cangkok Manis stir fried with egg
d) Cangkok Manis cooked with Pumpkin
e) cangkok Manis with dried fish.
f) cangkok manis with sweet potatoes in coconut milk.
g) In West Malaysia, Pan Mee is served with cangkok manis.
Today a young agronomist from Sibu (a Foochow) has successfuly grown cangkok manis on a commercial basis in Fujian. So after more than 100 years, the Foochows have brought back this green vegetable, a native of Sarawak, to grow in China.
The Cangkok Manis has helped Sibu Foochows to stave off starvation in the early 1900 and then later after the Second World War it became a restaurant vegetable. The status of a wild plant can be raised by social acceptance, so to speak. in the 21st Century it established itself in China.
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| Cangkok Manis in Minqing, Fujian, green house |
This should be written into social geography books - how a very interesting, edible plant has travelled out of an island in South East Asia to the Asian Mainland.
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