Sampalok Candy

Sampalok – Tamarind

Tamarind is a tropical fruit tree originating from India and Eastern Africa. The name is an arab word meaning Indian dates, because of its similarity to the dates that they have in Saudi Arabia.

The fruit contains tartaric acid which is an antioxidant and it is also rich in vitamins and minerals.

The pulp is rich in organic acids (citric, tartaric) that is why it is a laxative. So be careful not to eat too much!

Doing my research I am surprised to know that it is actually used for traditional medicine in countries like India, Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, e other tropical countries for :

• abdominal pain
• diarrhea, dissentery
• fungal infection
• wound infection
• malaria
• fever
• constipation
• gonorrhea
• eye disorders

the only proven clinical study for the effectiveness of tamarind is to cure eye disorders like dry eyes because of the polysaccarides contained inside the seeds therefore tried and tested as ingredient for eye drops.

There is nothing particular about this fruit. It is so ordinary that you can grow it even in your backyard LoL! It is used as an ingredient in a lot of dishes. The fruit that I know of is actually very sour. So it is not even consumable in its natural state.

I don’t consider this as healthy. But just like the other sweets from my previous articles, this is something that I grew up with. It is very popular in my origin country, the Philippines. Up until this day I like the sampalok candy.
It is sweet, salty and sour all at the same time hahaha
I know, try it to believe it. It is hard to immagine if you haven’t tasted it yet. It is incredibly tasty and particular I haven’t tried anything similar to this.

It is candied so this contains sugar and that is what gets me hahahha now that I am more conscious about what I eat, it is incredible to me now.

Again, I allow myself time and time again to enjoy sweets especially the ones that I don’t get to have anytime I want. All I know is that they are available in some oriental stores but it is not the same.

So whenever someone goes on a vacation to the Philippines, this is one of the ‘pasalubong’ that I request.

If you are curious try the Asian stores certainly they do sell them. It would be a rare experience to be able to taste this hhahhaha.

Thanks for being patient and for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed this and you learned something new. See you on my next one! Ciao!