Since migrating to Sarawak, the Foochows have learned to love this green vegetable called Cangkok Manis. The native Ibans also have their own name for this vegetable, while the western world knows it as a kind of gooseberry, the star gooseberry. It is also known as cekor manis, katuk and sweet leaf.
My grandfather having arrived in 1901 with Wong Nai Siong and his fellow Foochows observed some Ibans cooking in Sg. Merah and they noticed their vegetables. So before their own seeds brought from Fujian (Minqing and Kutient) were able to grow forth from their newly tilled soils, they went to forage jungle vegetables, incluing midin, paku, and bamboo shoots.
When they learned about the cangkok manis, at first they called the vegetable Native Vegetable or Lakian Cai. The name has stuck for more than a hundred years. Now many feel that it is not politically correct and it a racist and derogatory name, so they have changed the name to Sayur Manis or Cangkok Manis.
Sarawakians of all races love this vegetable and it can be cooked with bamboo shoots, eggs and anchovies. It can be a soup, and I have made quiches with it. It is a very versatile vegetable.
At one time, many claim that it contains a certain amount of cyanide but I have not reference to any scientific studies at hand. Many thus dont even want to touch it with a ten foot pole. But nevertheless it is now a favourite restaurant dish, after 100 years of Foochow settlement in Sibu.
But it is really a sweet vegetable, as the name Sayur Manis, suggests.
Its flowers are exquisite.
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