Thai Stir-Fried Morning Glory

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Ready in under four minutes, Thai stir-fried morning glory (phad pak boong fai daeng) may well be the fastest and easiest Asian food you’ll ever make! Despite its simplicity, this spicy, garlicky street food dish with fermented soya bean sauce will also be one of the tastiest.

Unfortunately, this is not a dish you’ll often (if ever) see on the menus of Thai restaurants in the West, which is a shame but I guess it’s just not considered ‘special’ enough.

And, being completely honest, eating street food in a nice, pristine restaurant in Britain completely lacks the atmosphere of sitting on a plastic chair at the side of a busy road in Thailand on a warm evening, watching the world go by. I will never not miss that.

vegan street food at Chiang Mai Gate night market

Vegan phad si ew and ‘fish’ balls from the jay stall at Chiang Mai Gate night market. Couldn’t you just devour it all?

Phad pak boong fai daeng

Although I’ve eaten stir-fried morning glory all over South East Asia, I first came across it in Thailand when I was living in Mae Hee – a small village, not far from the Burmese border.

(Yes, I know I should call it Myanmar but that’s actually a pretty contentious subject among the Burmese, so I prefer to go with Burma, since it’s what everyone I’ve ever known from there prefers it to be called. #digression)

So anyway, back when I was living in my little bamboo hut on a lake, oftentimes I’d be working out on the veranda in the evening, getting distracted by somersaulting fish, little jingjoks chirruping to each other, lovelorn tokays calling out for a mate, blue crested dragons popping by to say hello…

This was the view from my veranda. You can understand how easy it was to get distracted, right?! The tiny white dot on the mountains (left hand side) is a giant Buddha statue. I always felt he was watching over us all, making sure we were fine!

As I furiously bashed away at my keyboard, my friend, Orn, would come by, and say,

Nico, you work so late – I make you dinner, ka!

And she’d present me with a bowl of sticky rice, and a plate of THE most scrumptious stir-fried morning glory. It was always dressed with my favourite flower, frangipani.

After the fifth or sixth time of making it for me, I finally managed to coax the recipe from her. I was astounded by how simple it is. And how quick too – it takes just a few minutes, and most of that is prep; the actual cooking takes around 90 seconds!

How to make Thai stir-fried morning glory

It’s just a case of breaking up the morning glory, smashing the garlic, slitting the chillies, and then chucking everything into a really hot wok, along with a bit of seasoning. Stir-fry for 90 seconds, and you’re done!

In case you’re wondering, phad = fried, pak boong = morning glory (not a literal translation, of course), fai = fire, daeng = red. So basically, morning glory fried over a red-hot fire.

Yes folks, we’re heating our woks all the way up to eleven for this!

What is morning glory?

Morning glory, is a hollow-stemmed semi-aquatic plant with long lance-like leaves. It’s used throughout Asia but is perhaps best known by visitors to SE Asia who’ve seen theatrical street vendors cook it, then throw it across the street to be served up to goggled eyed and gasping tourists!

(Video courtesy of Skip Blumberg.)

English names for pak boong (ipomoea aquatica) vary; as well as morning glory (not to be confused with the garden plant of the same name, the seeds of which have hallucinogenic properties), it’s known as water convolvulus, water spinach, river spinach, Chinese spinach, and Chinese watercress.

Plus, no doubt Shrek’s favourite – swamp cabbage.

Morning glory across Asia

Across Asia, pak boong (or phak bung) is known by many names too; in China (Cantonese) it’s ong choi/choy – actually, it’s labelled as such in my local Sri Lankan store, despite it being called kankung in Sinhalese. It’s also called kangkung in Malaysia and Indonesia, and kangkóng in the Philippines. In Mandarin-speaking China, it’s kongxincai, and eng chai in Taiwan.

The Burmese, who often serve it with squid, call it kazun, to the Lao it’s pak boong, as it is in Thailand, while in Vietnam it’s known as rau muống. The Khmer people of Cambodia refer to it as trokuon, and in India it’s called variously; kolmou xak (Assamese), vallal (Tamil), kalmi saag (Hindi), and kalmi shak (Bengali) – to name but a few.

Naturally, dishes which use pak boong abound, and aside from stir-fried morning glory, one of my favourite ways to eat it is in thoran, of which I ate a lot when I lived in Kerala.

By the way, if you live in Florida, Hawaii, California, or Texas, you may be able to find pak boong growing in the wild! If not, it’s easily available in Asian stores and online.

Where does this dish come from?

Stir-fried morning glory originated in China, and then spread throughout the Chinese diaspora in Asia, evolving as it travelled. Although the version I make is Thai, I do actually ditch fish sauce in favour of light soy and Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing). Of course, if you’d rather use vegan fish sauce, then please do (forget the soy sauce and shaoxing, and use 1 tablespoon mai nam pla instead).