Bamboo Tube-Pounded Wild Greens

Bamboo Tube-Pounded Wild Greens

　　The mountainous regions where the Jingpo people live are rich in wild vegetables and fruits. The Jingpo's bamboo tube-pounded wild greens are their most distinctive dish, with a saying that goes, "If the pounding tube is silent, the meal lacks flavor." Pounding wild heartleaf houttuynia, using its roots and mixing them with fermented black beans in the bamboo tube, creates what is called "fermented black bean root" — one of the Jingpo’s staple wild vegetables. The heartleaf houttuynia that grows in the shaded mountain areas, forest edges, field ridges, and lowland grassy patches of Jingpo villages has tender green leaves and long white roots. It can clear heat and relieve summer heat, and is used to treat tonsillitis, tracheitis, pneumonia, and other conditions, making it both a vegetable and a medicinal herb. Another famous Jingpo dish is pounded horseshoe-leaved greens. Named for their horseshoe-shaped leaves, these greens grow along field ridges and ditches and can be harvested year-round, being most lush during the rainy season. The preparation method involves washing the greens, then mixing them with chili, tomato, fermented black beans, salt, and other seasonings before pounding them in a bamboo tube. They can also be rubbed and mixed with seasonings for eating. Eating them helps detoxify and reduce swelling, and they are used to treat tonsillitis, external injuries, dysentery, heatstroke diarrhea, boils, and abscesses, making them another vegetable-medicine wild green. Additionally, there is pounded wild coriander. Also known as Burmese coriander, this wild variety originates from Myanmar and Thailand. It grows under trees, by roadsides, and on wastelands, and is commonly seen in Jingpo villages. Its leaves resemble agave with spiny-toothed edges, and after the beginning of autumn, flower stems emerge bearing white or light green flowers with a unique fragrance. It can be used as a seasoning or pounded into a dish. Eating it can treat colds, chest pain, indigestion, and stomach discomfort, making it a key seasoning and a commonly eaten wild vegetable among the Jingpo.