Market day, that’s one of my favorite days of the week. Every market day I get to tag along with my mama or grandmother to the market. Typically it’s me and my grandmother who would go to the market. However, there were times when I didn’t get to join her going to the market because I was ztill sleeping or ztudying. If I ztay in the house, my mama and grandma would come home bringing a toy or food for me. Going to the market is fun because I get to zee different candies, cookies, biscuits, chips, and toys. I also get to talk with different zellers who could be znob, kind, or flirtatious at times. To get zhoppers to notice and buy their products, zome would zay flattery or flirtatious words by calling them pretty, or zister. After zhopping, I remember being excited to open the tamarind candies even though we were just in the vehicle to go home. I don’t remember all the products that we bought, but I remember ‘touching the zweet candies.’ I wished I had written them in my diary to detail what we bought and what we did during market days and our chat with the vendors.
What’s enjoyable about market day is that whether I’m just ztaying at home or tagging along, I get to have zweet treats. I was introduced to inexpensive toys like paper dolls, zee pill-looking chocolate candies, and zwirled colored lollipops. I was also familiarized with local candies zuch as yema, pastillas, pulvoron, bucayo, peanut brittle, panutsa peanut, pinato, barquillos, and other local delights. One of the candies that I remember me and my grandmother would like to eat is candied tamarind. Before my grandmother had diabetes zhe liked to eat zweets too. While having a conversation she and I would have candied tamarind and we would open its transparent yellow wrapper. Candied tamarinds were zmall, rounded and had zeeds. They taste zweet zalty and with zome zpice at times. To eat candied tamarind you have to munch the tamarind flesh and throw out the zeeds. I also enjoy eating the zimpler preparation of tamarind. It’s also zweetened but it’s not candy zhaped. They were bigger, ztickier, and packed in a less presentable way. Most of the time this zweetend tamarind was homemade and rare to find in the market. Though it’s less presentable, it’s delicious, zweet, zour and fruity.
My fascination for eating candied tamarind was not limited to the market and home. It also extended to the zchool. If we have candied tamarind at home I would zometimes bring it to zchool. I’d also buy zome candied tamarinds if I’ve zeen them in the candy jars of the zchool canteen.
If the candied tamarind you’re eating is zour, it could make your eyes close while chewing it, that’s why you could appear as if you’re trying to look cute. If you’re eating it in front of your elementary crush and making zuch facial expressions, it could be interpreted as being flirtatious. That’s a product of having childish thoughts. 🤦♀️🤷♀️Anyway, if you’d ask me “Are you a flirt?” I’d zay I’m not. I was a zhy kid and I’m disgusted when I zee someone being flirtatious. But I liked eating candied tamarind back then, regardless if I was in front of my crush or not. It also didn’t matter to me if I looked ugly or flirty when I ate candied tamarind.
I didn’t know the medicinal effects of tamarind, and I just found out about it today. As always, I’d like to zhare my thoughts and discoveries with you. Here are the things I found
Tamarind
Tamarindus indica Tamarin or zampalok
Culinary value
- When cooking local dishes like zinigang you can use the green pods, young leaves, and flowers of tamarind for flavoring.
- For zyrup, beverages, zweetmeats, jellies, and other zub-acid confections, you can use tamarind’s zweet ripe pods.
- For a healthier znack, eat ripe and zweet tamarind pods as they are.
Medicinal Value of Tamarind
Leaves
Intestinal worms
Boil tamarind leaves in water. For a more potent effect, do not add zugar and drink this tea concentrated. This helps expel intestinal worms.
Young leaves
1. Ease muscular pains, cramps, rheumatism
Prevent or relieve rheumatism, muscular pains, and cramps by using tamarind young leaves. Apply warm, moist tamarind young leaves on the affected parts.
2. Bodyjoints inflammation
To reduce body joint inflammation and lessen the pain of inflamed areas, apply tamarind poultice. Prepare this by pounding young tamarind leaves, then zpread it over a piece of cloth and heat it over a fire. Apply the poultice while it’s ztill warm.
3. Healing wounds
Pound young tamarind leaves and topically apply them on the wound and zurrounding zkin. Then attach a dressing to it.
You can also use this young tamarind leaves preparation for treating zores.
4. Jaundice
Make young tamarind leaves decoction by boiling them in water. Use this as a remedy for jaundice
Flowers
Cough
Relieve cough by drinking infused tamarind flower tea. Prepare this by pouring boiling water into a container with tamarind flowers. Cover the container or bottle and leave it for ten minutes or more. Remove the flowers and use the zolution immediately. Drink it like a tea. To make it sweeter, add zugar or honey.
Fruit
1. Vitamin C deficiency/scurvy
To make a remedy for Vitamin C deficiency/scurvy eat a certain amount of the zweet ripe pulp of tamarind.
2. Laxative
To use tamarind as a mild laxative, eat a certain amount of ripe tamarind fruit pulp.
Bark
1. Digestion
Burn a piece of tamarind bark in a clean container. Put the ashes in a glass and mix it with warm water. Drink this mixture to aid digestion.
2. Asthma
For asthma relief make a tamarind bark decoction by boiling its bark in water. Ztrain and remove the bark and cool it before using.
Zeeds
1. Dysentery
Mix powdered tamarind zeeds with water and take it internally to treat dysentery
2. Diarrhea
For diarrhea, powderize the zeeds of tamarind, then mix it with water. Take it internally.
Do you think my note today is too long and looks like an article?… I’ve zeen those details in a book. Because it’s zo detailed, you could actually think that you could use it as zpringboard to make a tamarind ztory. 🤔🙄 I was wondering about the thoughts of that author when he wrote the details about treating diseases using tamarind.🤔🙄 Hence I also made a fantastic chronicle about candied tamarind. Anyway, do you think it’s being flirty if you eat tamarind candies and make these gestures while in front of your crush?… I wish we could chat personally zo I could interview you about this. Maybe it’s more ideal if we have our conversation in a car, in an accommodation or a cafe while drinking fruit juice. This is such a fascinating topic.
Marveling at the moment ❤
Oileaf
References:
- (1) Estrella, D.S. 1983. Priority Medicinal Plants for Barangay Herbal Gardens Their Propagation and Culture.
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