Poinciana Salad and a First Love Story

From the poinciana salad to a beloved Vietnamese song…

Poinciana Salad

In Vietnam, the royal poinciana is revered as “phượng vĩ” – the phoenix’s tail. Its blooms, ablaze with color, could easily vie with the mythical bird’s fiery plumage. As May unfurls its warmth, these blossoms cast their glow, signaling summer’s return and awakening echoes of youthful days spent in school corridors.

Yet, these flowers do more than just kindle memories; they venture into the realm of taste, giving rise to a poinciana salad. It’s a vibrant mélange, bold and untamed, capturing the spirit of those carefree summer days.

On the plate, poinciana petals blaze like a sunset, each one a fiery brushstroke. White onion slices play it cool, lounging in a tangy bath of vinegar and sugar, pretending they’re not part of the party. Meanwhile, plump catfish struts its stuff, its golden skin glistening from a dance over the coals. Grilled shrimp, blushing a tipsy red, tumbles in next to the fresh mint leaves waving their green flags.

The scene gets crunchier as golden fried shallots and roasted peanuts do the mingle jingle. Shrimp crackers stand by, puffed up and gleaming, ready for the crunch. Mango slices, sweet and tart, roll call with a zesty high five. And for the grand finale, sweet and sour fish sauce waltzes in, with red chili and white garlic twinkling in a sticky, honeyed embrace.

Gather a forkful of the poinciana salad, give it a swirl in the sauce, let the flavors waltz. Sweet shrimp pirouette with fragrant fish, while mango and pickled onions play a duet of sweet and sour notes. Mint whispers a spicy secret, and chili adds a fiery verse. Garlic enters boldly, fried onions add a crisp rhythm, and peanuts drop a nutty beat. The salty fish sauce lays down the base, as all the flavors come together in a symphony to spotlight the star of the show: the poinciana flower. Its taste, a touch astringent, a hint sour, echoes the bittersweet tang of a first love’s tears.

“Phoenix Flower”: A First Love Story

“With phoenix blooms aboard, you pedal into the haze,

Carry with you my summer, and those fall-in-love days.”

Come May, poinciana flowers burst into life upon the branches. Gazing at them quivering in the sunlight, a flood of student-day memories rushes back. A face, once dim in the corridors of memory, emerges. A single glance, a fleeting smile. The first stirrings of love, so pure and vivid, make the heart race with each remembrance.

In a flash of inspiration, seeing a girl cycle away with poinciana flowers, poet Do Trung Quan crafted “First Love”. That poem touched musician Vu Hoang, inspiring him to compose “Phoenix Flower”. When I heard singer Vu Khanh perform it, the song’s lyrics and melody captivated my heart instantly, even more profoundly than the original poem.

At the tender age of 18, the young man’s love was a quiet flame: 

“My first love,

a wistful haze outside the window,

a white áo dài dancing in my dreams,

a poem in my notebook

kept hidden, no courage to give.”

Since they shared the same classroom, his gaze often wandered to her in brief, stolen moments. When it became too much, he turned to the window instead. There, a soft haze fell, not enough to moisten the ground, but enough to drape his soul with her image in a white áo dài (Vietnamese traditional dress). Words poured onto paper, forming a poem. But shyness held him back, and so the verses remained, tucked away in his notebook.

He shared his love quietly through the strings of his guitar:

“My first love,

a melody whispers through my guitar,

known to all, yet to one remains afar.”

When Vu Khanh’s soulful and resonant voice descended into a deep, low tone for the phrase ‘yet to one remains afar,’ it sent shivers down my spine. Miraculously, the young man in the song only became “a bard murmuring verses”.

He had harbored a secret affection for her from the previous school year. Last summer, he found himself wandering to school, gazing at the poinciana flowers in a reverie, etching his adoration into the tree’s bark. In a bold move, he inscribed their names within the embrace of a heart shape on the tree. He asked himself continuously:

“Could I see her once more when the school year anew,

her silk áo dài dances in the autumn breeze”

As they graduated this summer, their paths diverged. He watched her cycle away, her basket brimming with poinciana blossoms, feeling as though she was taking the summer and his first love with her – “you carried the summer by while I stood still”. In his bewilderment, he glimpsed “a sunshine street and long hair flying in the distance”.

“Phoenix flower” ranks among Vu Khanh’s finest pieces, always performed with precision. Yet, in a spontaneous moment, he sang ‘The phoenix sunshine on long hair flying in the distance.’ The phrase “phoenix sunshine” aglow with the vivid scarlet of the phoenix flowers is iconic and profound – a stroke of inspiration. Should the composer Vu Hoang have heard it, he likely would have chuckled, appreciating the creative liberty.

Who of us has not cherished a “phoenix love” to sometimes reflect upon, as the poet Pham Thien Thu does in “Once upon a time Hoang Thi”:

“Oh first love

like footsteps on the sand,

tread gently, deeply land,

yet swiftly swept from sand.”

The innocent first love born in the days of schoolyard shyness and longing glances often does not hold out, yet it remains a radiant and cherished memory tucked away in our hearts. The song “Phoenix flower” and the poinciana salad evoke hints of melancholy and wistfulness, but their sweet aftertaste lingers, etching them into our memories forever.

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