Julia and I decided to be a bit adventurous as get this bitter vegetable for a stir fry. When I asked the lady in the shop, in Cantonese, what this was called, she paused and said that it was called <a href="/photos/avlxyz/540128231/">"rau rang"</a> in Vietnamese. She said it was good for cooling the system, very good for you, but extremely bitter. Stir fry with dried shrimp was her command. ... and so I did a <a href="/photos/avlxyz/540016698/">Rau Rang stir fried with Sambal Belacan</a>, and yes, it was very bitter! Quite tender once you removed the more fibrous root sectios, but bitter, very bitter.

I think that it is part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea">purslane</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portulaca_oleracea">Portulaca oleracea</a> ) family, with succulent stems and short stubby leaves.

If anyone can confirm this, please leave a comment, or <a href="/messages_write.gne?to=10559879@N00">send me a flickrmail</a>.

Update 2007.10.30: I happened to stumble upon the name <a href="http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfa.nsf/LinkView/B03511C0EF16866BCA2570F30004BAA45E3946E74D2DB314CA257210000A4A12">rau dang / foo yip</a> (Cantonese for 苦叶 or bitter leaf) on the pages of the <a href="http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/">Department of Primary Industries, Victoria</a>, via <a href="http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/">Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database of Melbourne University</a>.

The MMPND is amazing! The list of <a href="http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Musa_Malay_names.html">Malay index of banana names</a> alone is amazing. And I thought I knew a thing or two about bananas :P