I happened to see this Australian-Vietnamese chef, Luke Nguyen, on one of his food travel shows on TV the other day. He went round all the places in Vietnam enjoying all the gorgeous local culinary delights. I do love Vietnamese cuisine and the best that I have had the pleasure of enjoying would be this one in Kuching that I enjoyed a lot more than this one in Miri.
I saw on the aforementioned TV show how they eat those Vietnamese mint or daun kesum leaves…
…with whatever they were eating just like that. I do have those growing in my garden and we do use them in our cooking like when my missus cooks chicken in the ethnic ayam pansoh (chicken cooked in bamboo) style or when I cook ikan buris wrapped in daun kunyit (turmeric leaves)…
…but no, I would not want to eat them raw because of the extra-strong pungent smell which blends in rather nicely with whatever one is cooking when cooked.
The ones in my garden do not seem to be doing too well right now, growing but not flourishing. Hopefully, they will recover and look a whole lot better soon. The same goes to my Thai basil…
…which is another one of those leaves that they eat a lot in Vietnam, raw. We do use it quite a lot in our cooking…
…but just like the daun kesum, we do not eat it raw. At best, I would just take the leaves, throw them into the piping hot soup and take it from there.
We have acquired the taste of this sawtooth coriander…
…the “cousin” of the daun ketumbar (coriander leaves) that is a must in Kuching popiah or as a topping in Kuching laksa. The uninitiated would quickly pick them up and get rid of them, grumbling that they smell of bed bugs! LOL!!!
We got ours from our friends at Payung and talking about them, they also gave us these Holy Basil…
…seeds. Brew the leaves with ginger and mint…
…for instant relief from cough! It certainly worked quite well for me.
I must say that I rather enjoy watching those food and travel shows that feature our neighbouring countries and seeing how similar we all are in what we do and eat.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
To enjoy raw herbs would mean that they have to be fresh and clean. So it is best to farm them in your very own backyard. At least you will have peace of mind knowing its origin. 🙂
Of course!!! I plant all of mine, 100% organic. Here, there are those growing wild too, like the daun kesum – those are safe, not farm grown.
I have Thai basil leaves and mint in my garden too. I, for one doesn’t like coriander leaves and I totally agree that they do taste like bed bugs or cockroaches…..😄😄😄 but I like Thai basil leaves in my cooking or fried rice.
Oh? First Kuchingite who is not fond of daun ketumbar. Everyone swears by them – those who do not like that I know are some of my cousins, people from Sibu originally. LOL!!!
I remember my mum used to put chopped sawtooth coriander in soup…. Not my kind of herb though. Pretty strong smell and taste for a kid. Haha.
I’m surprised! So popular in Kuching – when dining out, you see all the dishes garnished with a whole lot of it – the variety with the tiny leaves. If with members of my family, we would just take and put it all by the side, not our favourite.
I like basil leaves, like the aroma smell… but I have a friend who would “faint” just by smelling, literally speaking… and he won’t touch that particular dish with basil leaves in it. LOL…
Oh? So he cannot go for Thai and Vietnamese cuisines then. They use a lot of Thai basil.
All my mint, daun kesum and basil have died. Sobs!!! LOL!
Oh dear!!! I hope mine will stick around, so sayang!
I was fortunate to meet Luke Nguyen at a culinary event a few years back.
Oooooo…lucky you! He was in KL, saw a few of my blogger friends in the episode.