Water chestnuts?

I enjoy water chestnuts or in traditional Chinese: 荸薺. I find water chestnuts to be profound, especially as an ingredient in American Chinese food. Not only do water chestnuts add a nice crunch and absorb the flavor of the sauce. They make every meal they are in a crisp treat.

First I think it is important to understand what the Water Chestnut is.

The Water Chestnut or Eleocharis dulcis is a grass-like sedge native to Asia (China, Japan, India, Philippines, etc.), Australia, tropical Africa, and various islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The water chestnut is not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes, under water, in the mud. The small, rounded corms have a crisp, white flesh and may be eaten raw, slightly boiled, or grilled, and often are pickled or tinned. They are a popular ingredient in Chinese dishes. In China, they are most often eaten raw, sometimes sweetened. They also may be ground into a flour form used for making water chestnut cake, which is common as part of dim sum cuisine.

Not only does the water chestnut have a crisp firm crunchy texture but it has many health qualities. The corms of the water chestnut are rich in carbohydrates (about 90% by dry weight), especially starch (about 60% by dry weight), and are also a good source of dietary fiber, riboflavin, vitamin B6, potassium (350 to 360 mg per ½ cup), copper, and manganese, with a respectable array of smaller amounts of other vitamins and minerals. However, water chestnut has no cholesterol to speak of or vitamin A at all. Fresh raw water chestnuts contain slightly more fat than the canned variety, but it’s the good kind.

The health benefits do not stop there with the Water Chestnut. Drinking water chestnut juice has been touted as a way to alleviate nausea, relieve suffering from jaundice, and detoxify the body from impurities. Making the powder into a paste is still used as a remedy for inflammation and is said to be useful, stirred up in water, as a cough elixir and for easing patients with measles.

Studies have found water chestnuts to contain flavonoid antioxidants like catechins, specifically epicatechins (as do dark chocolate, red wine, and green tea). Early aboriginal medicine men crushed the outsides of the bulb for wound application and healing, which science now knows releases antimicrobial effects. Inside water chestnuts are an antibiotic compound called “puchin” which acts in immune function like penicillin.

Therefor water chestnuts, besides tasting amazing in food or by themselves, have compounds with the potential to fight numerous diseases, making water chestnuts much more than just a crunchy ingredient for chop suey.

lstrat115 wrote: »

@cee134 I would like an analogy to Star Wars please

Funny you should say that. I was just thinking about the people that don't like water chestnuts and how that reminds me of the story of Emarr Ottkreg.

Emarr Ottkreg was a human male colonel and loyalty officer for the Imperial Security Bureau who was stationed aboard the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Vigilance during the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. Strongly disliked by the Vigilance's admiral, Rae Sloane, Ottkreg questioned her tactics as she gave orders during the battle while he personally watched the fighting on the Star Destroyer's holotank. Ottkreg greatly enjoyed watching the destruction of the Rebel Alliance on the hologram but began trying to give orders to the crew once the battle started turning against the Empire. Realizing the Empire had lost and that the Death Star II was going to be destroyed, Sloane shot and killed Ottkreg rather than arguing with him when she ordered a retreat.

To me not liking water chestnuts is as futile as Ottkreg not wanting to retreat during the Battle of Endor. It serves no purpose and only ends up destroying you in the end.