Water dropwort (Java/Chinese celery)

Oenanthe javanica · Vegetable

40 pairings

Water dropwort (Oenanthe javanica) — also called Java water dropwort, Chinese celery, Japanese parsley, water celery, minari or seri — is the crisp, hollow, aquatic leaf-stalk of a marsh-loving perennial in the carrot family, eaten as a stem vegetable across Korea, Japan, China and much of tropical and subtropical Asia. Cut young and snapped raw, the juicy ridged stems are emphatically crunchy and watery, green and grassy with a clean peppery-celery freshness and a whisper of parsley; lightly blanched or stir-fried they turn sweeter and more tender while keeping their bite. Its smell is bracingly green and celery-like — the umbellifer signature of the family — but softer and more herbal than dry-land celery, which is why it is prized as much for aroma as for crunch.

Picking a good onedrag

Stiff wet stems, dark even topsLimp, yellowing, slimy at the tie

Shop freshBlanched for namul, cut to batons for the wok, or into maeuntang at the end. Judge a bought bundle only; this is not a foraging guide.Everyday best

Hollow stemsSnap clean, but the break face is only damp

Leafy topsGreen, leaflet edges beginning to curl

The liftStands, then the tops bow over slowly

Smell at the cut endsGreen and clean, the pepper faint

What to look for, from stiff wet stems, dark even tops to limp, yellowing, slimy at the tie.

Preparing