Share your experiences / research with Tamarind!

[goodsamaritan]

Lots of info on Tamarind here... http://www.stuartxchange.org/Sampalok.html

Lately I've been buying candied Tamarind or Thai boxed tamarind for my children.

What occurred to me remembering old videos of how to make candied tamarind is they do not cook this.

Funny we were talking about this and a relative was happily surprised that some time ago he ate candied Thai tamarind and kept throwing the seeds out to his garden and the darn thing grew into a sapling... (meaning the tamarind was raw / alive.

[eveheart]

In California (and Mexico), you can buy Jarritos Tamarindo, which is a Mexican sugar-sweetened soft drink, sold in bottles everywhere. You can also get Mexican-style tamarind candy, typically sold on plastic spoons.

In Asian markets and most general supermarkets, you can buy the paste in jars for culinary use. Tamarind soup is a delicious sour soup found in many restaurants. I think it is too tropical to grow in California, but you can buy the pods grown in Mexico.

[raw]

Very old tamarind is a cancer cure medicine .

[PaleoPhil]

I found a brand of tamarinds that's better than the others I have tried. The more I eat them, the more I like them and the better I digest them, it seems.

[eveheart]

I found a brand of tamarinds that's better than the others I have tried.

Care to elaborate? Are you getting the whole pod, or paste, or Are you eating it straight and sour?

[PaleoPhil]

Whole pods, eating it straight, quite tasty, though they were only slightly tasty to me the first time I tried them. Sweet, with some lovely tangyness. YMMV No doubt truly fresh tamarinds would taste better. Watch out for tamarinds with cracked pod shells--they tend to be dry and unpalatable.

The ones available to me come in a box, similar to this:

I also tried tamarind candy, but found it too sugary sweet for my taste.

I eat fresh-squeezed lemon juice straight, without added sugar, and find them more sweet than sour, especially Meyer lemons, so I probably have a higher tolerance for sour/tangy tastes than most people.

Warning to people sensitive to tannins and phytates--tamarinds contain some. I started out slowly myself and gradually built up my ability to metabolize them well, perhaps with the help of improved GI microbiota. As my ability to digest them improved, so too did the taste.

Some Australopithecine habitats were rich in soft legume pod fruit or seeds, edible raw, from tamarind, "Acacia" (aka wattle seeds), and other trees/bushes.
(Meat-Eating and Human Evolution, Oxford University Press, May 18, 2001, p. 85)

“The chimpanzee needs no coercion to eat the tamarind fruit.” - Akan saying

[goodsamaritan]

Very old tamarind is a cancer cure medicine .

More info please?

[eveheart]

The ones available to me come in a box, similar to this:
...

Thanks, that's good to know, Phil. I looked up the description of the tamarind in the picture. One online seller said this, "...Not widely known, there are in fact two type of tamarind. The more well known sour tamarind is very sour and is usually used for cooking. The type of tamarind here is a sweet variety and is enjoyed as a snack in Thailand and other parts of the world. If you would like to impress a Thai, give this fruit as a gift." I have also heard the sweetness was merely a question of ripeness or maturity of the pods, so I might try a few different brands if I don't like the first one I try.

[PaleoPhil]

Yes, I tried three brands and the best one I tried said "Sweet Tamarind" and "fresh" on the box  and that it was from Thailand.

[eveheart]

I bought "sweet" and "fresh" tamarind from Amazon. Looking at the brand's website, I see that they sell three styles of tamarind pods, sweet, sweet and sour, and sour, as well as different candies and pastes. No mention of agricultural practices, but the factory looks clean and modern, and the pods are clearly unprocessed. Taste is good enough to give the grandchildren and tell 'em it's candy - about as sweet as a raisin and mildly fun to get the edible part out of the pod and nibble the flesh from the seed. Bonus: the super-hard brown seeds would look nice made into jewelry!