I remember my first taste of kiwi fruit, and also my first taste of Tamarind. The kiwi fruit was at my piano teacher's house, but my first taste of tamarind paste was in Mr Wright's math class in high school. I learned a lot in those classes, but one thing that has stuck with me over the years as much as matrix transformations or trigonometric functions was the taste of these chili suckers I would get from Nico. The chili suckers, and I still don't really know what they were called (Indeed I didn't until very recently realize what they were made of), were green appley suckers gooped with tamarind paste and smothered with a chili powder. I am realizing even now that I'm not so sure about the green appley part--just sure about the tamarind and chili part.
The chili part I have been reliving lately in my discovery of Tajin. It is a sort of "chili salt" infused with dehydrated lime juice, and it is good. Devilishly good. As in, try some of it, and your tastebuds will probably tell you in Spanish that they would like you to continue giving them that sort of attention.
The tamarind paste I found in stores around these parts at this time of year for making chili apples. When I googled it I suspected that it was, at long last, the long lost taste of 20 years ago. The funny thing is, years ago, I had found tamarindo candy and had decided that it was the long lost taste and the case was closed, I thought, as far as my taste bud nostalgia would go. But no. I bought some tamarind paste and took it home, and ate it with apple slices and Tajin, and Kazam!, just like an out of date Shaq reference, there my tastebuds were, back in 1993, and they were speaking to me. In Spanish.
The thing is, tamarind paste is so sour as to be almost unbearable. I experimented on all of my fmaily members, and none of them liked it at all. Even with Tajin (Their tastebuds are delaying their satisfaction, I am sure, because the taste was literally too much for their minds to process.). But this is the thing. I also didn't like it at first. It was so horrible, and spicy, I probably was pretty sure I wouldn't ever eat one of those again. But then, you know, a while later and the weirdness of it and the novelty, and I was sucking down another one with my sour face. But after that I liked them. And then 20 years years later, and my tastebuds are having a real fiesta.
I experienced the dislike-like food novelty aspect with natto in Japan. It is something you wouldn't think is a foodstuff. but after a couple times of forcing it down, you found the novelty has grown into a weird fondeness and then even something you sort of crave. I wonder if in 5 more years I'm not going to be reliving my days of Japanese school lunches and getting natto at the local import store to experiment on my Japanese family members to see if the taste (and texture!) of fermenting beans is literally too much for their minds to process.
But back to the current troydanielbecker. Happy November!
Tamarind trees are devilishly interesting. Read here if you want to get sucked in. The take away facts? Tamarind is a main ingredient in Coke and in Worcestershire Sauce. Lots of medicinal properties. It is African, like coffee and the origins of humanity.
Apparently it made its way into Asia before Marco Polo got his hands on it.
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| 3 day old tamarind sprout |
