Saturday, April 26, 2008

Junk food of the week: Tamarind chews

"Sugar-frosted bunny poops," my friend and coworker Howard dubbed these. In fact they are little chewy jellies of tamarind, the supersour fruit much loved by Indonesian and Indian cooks.


I thought these were going to be chocolate-based, so I was glad I asked before popping the first one in my mouth. They were pretty tasty, though -- tangy and sweet and fruity, and they don't stick to your teeth like a jellybean or gummi bear.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

These sound like one of the more pleasing junk foods you've previewed recently. And it's fruit, so it's practically healthy!

Fresh tamarind is something I only discovered pretty recently -- eating the goopy stuff right out of the pod (though that caterpillar-like appearance is kind of off-putting), and it's DELICIOUS.

Trish said...

Wow, I didn't know you could eat fresh tamarind! That sounds great. Is it sour?

mr_john said...

Yes, but pleasantly so. I much prefer it to the sugar coated kind.

Anonymous said...

I think, if you are lucky you may find fresh tamarind sold in front of elementary schools by the street in Jakarta, packed in small plastic bag.

Trish said...

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out!