Willows have sprouted. Can they be eaten? How? Where?

Today is Arbor Day, and it is early spring. The "green riverside willows" in many places have begun to sprout. However, we have to ask an inappropriate question:

Which part of weeping willow is edible?

Weeping willow (Salix babylonica): ? | Fab5669 / Wikimedia Commons

If you are not a student of the Jiangsu Education Edition of Chinese Language and Literature for Junior High School (there is a text called "Willow Leaves", which is about eating willow leaves when you were a child and had nothing to eat), or if your elders cooked this kind of "wild vegetable" when you were a child, you will probably be as confused as I was when I first heard it: "Can willow trees be eaten???"

Willow in the dish

But if you think about it, you can guess which part of the willow tree you want to eat - the bark of the willow tree is full of crumbs, and you can't dig up the tree to take the roots, so the leaves are left, which look more like vegetables . Imagine this scene: On a sunny morning in early spring, people came to the willow tree by the river with small baskets and hummed songs, and carefully picked the new buds of the willow tree in the spring breeze... I really want to report them!

The newly sprouted buds of willow trees are green and lovely｜nipic.com

In many places, willow buds have been eaten as vegetables since a long time ago. When a family still relied on a few acres of thin land to make a living, willow buds did not require much effort to take care of, and they were not very rough to eat. As long as the family took some time to pick some, they could have a meal, so they naturally became a good food reserve.

But after a period of development, whether it is out of nostalgia, or liking this special flavor, or during this period of time, eating willow buds has become a symbol rooted in culture, and willow buds have begun to enter people's tables as a seasonal fresh vegetable . In some places, every year at this time, families have to eat a few dishes made with willow buds. In some places, in addition to planting willow branches, they must also eat a dish of cold willow buds on the Qingming Festival. However, after asking all the friends around me, they were still very surprised to hear that willow leaves can be eaten. This custom may not be common in some places.

Cold willow sprouts｜douguo.com

It is very simple to eat willow buds. After blanching them with hot water to reduce the bitterness, you can mix them with salt, sugar, and sesame oil . You can also add some peanuts, sesame seeds, etc. according to your personal taste. It is not difficult to make hot dishes. After blanching, scramble eggs or stir-fry garlic, or make willow bud dough with more steps. The way to eat "wild vegetables" is always lighter and needs to keep the original flavor.

However, although the willow buds have a little fragrance when cooked, the taste is relatively rough. If you are used to eating carefully cultivated fresh and tender vegetables, you may feel uncomfortable with the rough taste of willow buds. Don't have too high expectations before you find a chance to taste them. In addition, I don't support picking willow buds for greening . After all, it is always bad to destroy public property and damage green plants, and the hygiene is also worrying. What if the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, Garden Bureau and other units are not lazy and really spray the trees with pesticides?

The catkins of the weeping willow (the one in the upper right corner) can also be used in cooking with the young leaves｜Frost moth

Willow in the cup

If willow buds are not eaten as vegetables, there is another way for them to end up on people’s tables: making tea .

As far as I know, the practice of making tea with willow buds can be traced back to at least the Ming Dynasty . There are related records in Gushan Bizhu, which shows that people at that time used willow buds, Chinese toon buds and other leaves to brew and infuse. This kind of tea tastes very light, without any tea aroma, only a bitter taste, and it is difficult for people who are not used to bitter tea to drink it. But after swallowing the tea, a fresh taste will slowly rise in the mouth, which is a bit like the sweet taste of drinking tea.

Willow Bud Tea｜6eat.com

Compared to other teas, the taste of willow bud tea is indeed much worse, lacking the aroma of tea , it feels like the soul of tea is missing, I still prefer to drink tea made from tea leaves. However, if you have not tried willow bud tea, it is also good to find an opportunity to try this feeling of integrating the freshness of spring into a cup.

Eat all the bean curd leaves

It seems a bit disappointing to just talk about willow leaves, after all, willow buds are not very delicious when used in cooking or tea. Let's talk about other leaves that can be eaten on the table - Chinese toon is of course the most delicious, and many people have tasted the delicious aroma of Chinese toon fried eggs. Besides this, what else is there?

Come on, let’s start with something a little more curious. Did you know that maple leaves can be eaten?

The maple leaves used to make maple syrup are not what we are talking about here (all members of the maple family can basically be called maple trees). In China, maple leaves are used to make black glutinous rice : crush the maple leaves, soak them for a day or two until the juice turns brown, pour out the water and bring it to a boil, then soak the glutinous rice in it for a few hours to a day, and after it turns brown, steam it in water. It looks a bit like black rice, but it looks like black rice.

In Japan, people also eat maple leaves seriously, such as " Red Leaf Tempura ". The maple leaves are picked and sealed in a can, pickled with salt for a year, then taken out and coated with flour, sesame and fried. The crispy texture is quite good. However, it is better to say that you are eating the crispy skin on the outside rather than eating maple leaves. You can't actually taste the maple leaves themselves, they just look better when made with maple leaves.

Eating red leaf tempura is like eating all kinds of Japanese confectionery. It is not so much about tasting the delicious taste as it is about appreciating the fun of food｜yurukuyaru.com

"Mu Le buds" (also called "Mulan buds" or "Mu Li Cai"), this "wild vegetable" is actually a kind of tree bud. Some people may not believe it, but this is the bud of the Koelreuteria paniculata (I'll say it again: don't pick buds from street trees!). The Koelreuteria paniculata buds can be mixed with cold salad or stir-fried, and they are not much different from Chinese toon buds; but what I recommend most is to chop them together with meat and make dumplings, which has a unique and delicious taste.

The blanched Koelreuteria paniculata sprouts are not dried vegetables｜meishij.net

There are also Sichuan pepper leaves, which are actually what I want to recommend the most. Fried Sichuan pepper leaves are fragrant and crispy, with a bit of saltiness and spicy taste. They are the most suitable for my taste among all the leaves. The first time I ate this thing was in a small restaurant in the imperial capital. I was still young at that time. I felt really bitter when I saw that the only thing served on the table was a plate of fried leaves wrapped in dough and looked terrible. But once you taste it, the consequence is just like eating potato chips, you can't stop eating it at all. The crunchy feeling is very suitable as a snack... If you want to cook Sichuan pepper sprouts at home, if you are too lazy to fry them, it is also very good to use them in omelets.

The shape of fried pepper leaves looks particularly unappetizing, but don’t despise them because of their appearance｜nipic.com

There is another kind of leaves that can be eaten as a snack - tea ears , but whether you can eat them depends on luck. The new leaves of oil tea are sometimes infected by fungi, forming a deformed leaf that becomes thicker and discolored (similar to the formation principle of corn mushrooms and wild rice, although wild rice looks much more normal in comparison). At first, they will grow larger and darker in color, with purple-red flesh; after a while, when they are "mature", they will shed a thin layer of skin and reveal a white color that is translucent with pink or light green. The taste is crisp, sweet and slightly sour, similar to the flesh of the fruit . However, if they are not picked in time, they will quickly turn black and shrink, leaving those who miss them with regrets.

White and plump tea ears will be bitter if you pick them too early｜nipic.com

There are actually quite a few edible tree leaves, but the ways of eating them generally remain the same. The above examples are just an attempt to forcibly broaden the diets of some people. As for banana leaf rice or elm seeds, bananas are not considered trees, and elm seeds are not leaves.

Author: Achroos

Title image source: Pixabay