Tamarind has its own taste, very poetic and full when it is applied in gastrono¬my. The tree is familiar to most the people, who often remember it as they do a big almond tree in front of the house or a carambola tree with fragile purple flowers in the garden. But it is more special than the others as the tree does not only offer fruit but also tasty leaves.
The fruit has a sour taste and so do the leaves, but with the leaves being somewhat acrid. The fruit is a precious gift that nature offers the human beings
Tamarind leaves have the same shape as flamboyant leaves, just rather thinner and smaller. Just put a small bunch of the leaves into a pot of water, and the sour taste will make the lemon and dra-contomelum fruit green with envy
People have many ways to enjoy the fruit. Just taste a glass of iced tamarind, which is sold only at tea stalls in Saigon. A small tea stall sells teas and ice cream, with a sale person who is very friendly and with a nice smile. This is bet¬ter than at home, as you have this pleasant place with small, nice tables and the nice voice of the pretty sales girl
Few people know how to make a glass of iced tamarind into a delicious and tempting drink. You might drink the juice many times, but it is always the first time as it is always delicious. The sales girl welcomes people and puts silky¬ shaved ice, sugar, and later scent¬ed, dried peanut into the glass. The glass becomes delicious with the sour taste of tamarind, the sweetness of sugar, the cool ice, the texture of the tamarind fruit and the scented and greasy taste of dried peanut.
With just simple things like that, the hot season becomes more comfortable. But creating such a delicious drink takes time. The tamarind fruit, when ripe, is peeled to get the flesh inside. The flesh is put into a pot with water to cook and stirred until it becomes viscous
Besides the great taste of iced tamarind, there is also sweet¬ened tamarind porridge. When every hot season comes, sweet¬ened porridge stalls are always crowded. High school students, at the end of school rush to the porridge stalls to call for a bowl of sweetened tamarind porridge. The bowl of porridge is different from others. The scent of gluti¬nous rice and the tamarind makes the bowl so tempting, without the quintessence of coconut or the scent of vanilla
The easy going sales girl tells customers how to make a bowl of tamarind sweetened porridge. The seed of the tamarind is fried and uncovered to take the flesh. This is then steeped in ash liquor to make it more glutinous and scented. Then, it is cooked over a light fire. The glutinous rice is then poured over it. Both are cooked until they become viscous, and then white refined sugar is poured in. That way, the sweet¬ened porridge has its own taste and color.