Vegetable fern (Diplazium esculentum) is the tender young frond and coiled crozier of a large tropical wetland fern — the everyday edible fern green of South and Southeast Asia, gathered from stream banks, ditches and paddy margins and eaten daily where it grows. Known as pako or paco in the Philippines, paku in Malay and Indonesian, phak kut in Thailand, dhekia in Assam and pucuk paku across the region, it is quite distinct from the temperate ostrich-fern fiddlehead of North America and Japan: this is a warm-climate species eaten year-round, mild and grassy with a soft okra-like slipperiness when cooked and a clean nutty-green snap when very fresh. Young curled tips and the top few tender inches of stalk are picked; they are blanched and dressed as a salad, stir-fried with garlic and shrimp paste, or simmered in coconut milk and sour soups.