The wild vegetable Leizhenzi looks like bamboo shoots, grows rapidly after thunder and lightning, and tastes superb

When it comes to Leizhenzi, most people probably think of the Leizhenzi from Investiture of the Gods, but in the mountainous areas of Hainan, Leizhenzi is a common and delicious wild vegetable. This wild vegetable is a bit strange: it likes thunder and lightning weather the most. Because this kind of weather is often accompanied by heavy rain, after the thunder and lightning storm, this wild vegetable grows rapidly, with plant after plant rushing out of the ground, so people call it "Leizhenzi."

Leizhenzi is also called "Leigong Sun" (Thunder God's bamboo shoot). It is a wild vegetable unique to Hainan and cannot be seen elsewhere. Local people go into the mountains to pick this wild vegetable after thunderstorm days, and the best ones are Leizhenzi that have not yet bloomed. Cut them across the middle with a knife, and many can be picked at one time. Peel off the outer skin, and the tender stem inside looks like a bamboo shoot. It is greenish-green in color and looks almost exactly like a wild small bamboo shoot, but its taste is even more delicious.

The tender stems of Leizhenzi are tender and fiberless, with a delicate fragrance. They can be made into all kinds of delicious dishes and can also be made into pickles. However, it should be noted that Leizhenzi cannot be eaten raw. It contains a slight toxicity, so it needs to be boiled and blanched in water before cooking. This step can be skipped for pickles. Hainan has a famous dish, sour Leigong Sun soup, which is soup cooked with pickled Leizhenzi, and locals love to drink it. This soup has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, stimulating appetite and aiding digestion, clearing the liver and improving eyesight, lowering blood pressure, and treating constipation.

Because Hainan's climate is warm and humid, Leizhenzi grows almost all year round, and its yield is very high. Local farmers process Leizhenzi into various specialty products, such as canned goods and dried products, and sell them all over the country. Because Leizhenzi also has certain medicinal value, it helps to relieve edema and has auxiliary therapeutic effects on symptoms such as body swelling, nephritis, difficult urination, and urethritis. At the same time, mashing fresh tender stems of Leizhenzi and applying them externally can also treat skin swelling and toxins.

Dear readers, do you know this delicious wild vegetable "Leizhenzi"? Has anyone eaten it?