Phtee! Phtee (Green Amaranth) is a green leafy vegetable used in many traditional Khmer dishes to add a bit of nutrition and a bright green color. It’s common for people to walk down the street in search of plants to add to their dinner. As part of our language learning experience, we have been spending one day a week learning how to cook some Khmer dishes. Of course, it is not always so easy!
Just two of some of the amazing flowering plants in our neighborhood.
One Friday, as we were preparing to cook lunch with our language helper (“teacher” in Khmer is nea-kru), she asked if I (Josiah) could go outside and pick some Phtee. Of course I could! I had seen the plant enough times (once) to identify it. Complying with her request, I went outside and picked some leafy greens, and then washed them with the rest of our green vegetables.
This is Phtee.
As we were about to dump these vegetables into the pot, Neakru let out a scream, “What’s this!?” “Phtee of course…” She went on to explain that if we had eaten these leafy greens we would have gotten sick. Oops. We then proceeded to sort through the green vegetables carefully, removing everything I thought was Phtee. Then, she showed us the difference between the two plants and we got what we needed to finish cooking.
The final product: Sngao Phtee.
I thank God that I did not poison my family! I am now pretty confident that I can identify Phtee accurately. Language learning with Neakru has been a blessing in so many ways and I’m thankful for this opportunity to learn Khmer, especially in the context of sharing meals.