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Welcome to the web page on tropical
fruits from the Pacific region, and
on curious attributes of these fruits:
We all know our typical
fruits, such as apples, pears, plums, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.
We also know, that some of them, independently from the
excellent taste, nutritious values, and countless vitamins,
carry various other attributes and capabilities.
For example pears have the tendency to cause stomach
pains and release diarrhoea. But they also lower the
temperature and calm the temper. Forest blueberries
stop diarrhoea and solidify the stool. Cucumbers ease
and lower the pain of throat. Etc., etc. So it is also
about the time to learn the most basic kinds of
tropical fruits and their most important characteristics.
* * *
Our planet has three
tropical areas, namely the American, the African, and the
region of Pacific. Although people plant many similar tropical
fruits in all these areas, for example bananas or oranges,
still each one of these areas have many other fruits - which
are unique just for it. For example, in the region of Pacific
quite unique is the fruit named "durian", which is not
planted neither in the American or in the African areas.
But what is much more important, in these three tropical areas the
culture, tradition, and the philosophy of eating subsequent
kinds of tropical fruits is drastically different. On this
web page I try to present tropical fruits that grow and are
eaten in the Pacific region. My experience with these fruits
originate mainly from Malaysia, although almost everything
that grows in Malaysia, grows also in all other countries
from the Pacific region, e.g. in Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo,
Indonesia, etc. Only that it may be known over there under
a slightly different name, and be eaten in a slightly different
form. The information presented on this web page about tropical
fruits from the region of Pacific, is characteristic mainly
for the culture, tradition, and philosophy of eating these
fruits in this Pacific region.
The culture, philosophy,
and tradition of eating tropical fruits in the Pacific region is
strongly influenced by the believes, philosophy, culture, and
knowledge of ancient Chinese. We must remember that Chinese
since the oldest times visited these areas, traded with local
people, induced the demand for specific fruits, and taught local
tribes how to eat properly these fruits.
The ancient Chinese
knowledge qualify all fruits into several different categories,
depending on a type of energy that dominates in them. It deals
with fruits in a similar manner as it deals with all other
kinds of food, and also living organisms. According to this
knowledge, there are two basic kinds of energy, which can be
present in fruits, food, people, vegetation, etc. These are:
the energy "yang" and energy "yin". The energy
"yang" is the "male" energy, which in reference to fruits and
other food frequently is called the "heating" energy. In turn
energy "yin" is the "female" energy, which in case of fruits
and other food frequently is called the "cooling" energy.
Outcomes of my research on both these kinds of energy are
described in subsection H2 from volume 4 of the scientific
monograph which on my web pages is marked
[1/4],
and which carries the following editorial data: dr Jan Pajak,
"Advanced magnetic devices". (Copies of this monograph
[1/4]
are distributed free of charge from this web page via
"Menu 1" and
"Menu 4".)
Summarising this research here in one sentence, this male
energy "yang" is an ancient Chinese equivalent to all forms
of dynamic energy known to present science, means e.g. to
dipolar fields, to energies of flows, to energies of
acceleration, etc. In turn female energy "yin" is an
ancient Chinese equivalent to all forms of static energy
known to present science, means to e.g. monopolar fields,
energy of compression, energy of potentials, etc.
If a given fruit
(and also a person, animal, vegetation, food, etc.) contains
more male energy "yang" than female energy "yin", then
Chinese claim that it is of a "yang" kind, means it
displays the "heating" capabilities. Thus fruits of the
"yang" kind (and also all other food, people, animals
and vegetation of the "yang" type) are overfilled with
an excess of the male energy "yang" which frequently
in reference to fruit and food is also called the
"heating" energy. The ancient Chinese knowledge
recommends, that fruit and food of the male type "yang"
be eaten in moderation, especially if someone belongs
himself to the "yang" category (e.g. if someone is a
male - although one needs to be careful with categorising
people just because of their sex only, as there are females
in which also the energy "yang" may be this dominating
one). In turn, when we start to enjoy these fruits or
food and would like to eat a large quantity of it,
then ancient Chinese recommended to eat immediately
also a corresponding amount of fruit or food of the
female type "yin". To the category of male ("yang") type
of tropical fruits, means to the category of "heating"
fruits, belong, amongst others: durian, persimon,
ginger, lychee, langsat, longan berry, lotus seeds,
and several others.
However, if
a given fruit (and also a person, animal, vegetation,
food, etc.) contains inside more female energy "yin"
than the male energy "yang", then ancient Chinese state
that it belongs to the type "yin". Thus fruits of the
"yin" type (and also all other food, people, animals,
and vegetation of the "yin" type) are overfilled with
an excess of female energy "yin", which frequently is
also called the "cooling" energy. Ancient Chinese
knowledge recommended, that also fruit and food of the
female type "yin" should be eaten in moderation, especially
if someone herself belongs to the category "yin" (e.g.
if someone is a woman, although one needs to be careful
with categorising just on the basis of gender, as there
are males in whom also dominates the female energy "yin").
In cases when someone loves the taste of any "yin" fruit
or food, and wishes to eat a large quantity of it, then
ancient Chinese recommended to eat immediately after
them an energetically equivalent amount of fruit or
food of the male type "yang". However, in present days
this ancient recommendation does NOT need to be respected
so pedantically. The reason is that in present days the
majority of food eaten everyday by people belongs to
the "heating" or "wet-heating" category described here
(e.g. "heating" is everything that is fried, and also
all "fuzzy" drinks such as "coca-cola", "lemonade",
etc.). Therefore, in present days in our everyday diet
typically food from the "cooling" category is missing,
while we eat the excess of food from the "heating"
category. Therefore, everyday eating such a "cooling"
food to balance almost everything else that we also
eat and drink everyday, should be our highest priority.
In turn when we eat something "cooling", then we do
not need to compensate it by intentional eating also
something "heating". After all, this "cooling" food
itself is a balance to whatever we eaten previously.
To the category of fruits of the
female type "yin", means a "cooling" one, belong, amongst
others (in the order of their cooling power): mangosteen,
cucumber, pears, tapioca, tomatoes, coconuts, sea coconuts,
green bananas (e.g. from Ecuador), lemons, pineapples, starfruit,
melons, water chestnuts, and several others. (An interesting
on this list is our ordinary "European" cucumber, which displays
strong cooling abilities. About it in common use is even
a popular saying "as cool as a cucumber".) Amongst drinks,
"cooling" are, amongst others, beer and tea (but only this
tea which is drunk a la "Chinese" or a la "Japanese" style -
means without sugar and without any other additions).
Of course, the fact
that a given fruit or food is of a "yang" type does NOT mean
at all, that it does NOT contain any "yin" energy, and vice
versa. This is because the type to which a given fruit or
food belongs is decided by the excess of a given
type of energy that prevails in it. In this manner, e.g.
durian contains in itself both, the male energy "yang" and
also the female energy "yin". Only that it contains many
times more of the male energy "yang" than the female energy
"yin". If a given fruit or food contains in itself the
same amount of the male energy "yang" as female energy
"yin", then both these energies mutually balance each
other. In such a case ancient Chinese qualified a given
fruit or food to a "neutral" type. The fruit and
all other food of the "neutral" type are the most healthy,
and the most recommended for eating. Ancient Chinese claimed,
that if someone is capable and has a taste for them, then
in principle should eat almost exclusively fruit and
food that are energetically "neutral". Also one can
eat such neutral fruit and food in as large quantities
as only wishes. Their eating does NOT need to be balanced
later by eating an appropriate quantity of any other
fruit or food. To the tropical fruits of this "neutral"
type belong, amongst others: papaya, yellow bananas
(i.e. miniature bananas yellow inside, which grow mainly
on various islands from the Pacific region), oranges,
guava, dragon fruit, pomelo, apples, soursop, chiku.
The ancient Chinese
knowledge distinguishes also one more category of fruit and
food, which usually is called by Chinese the "wet-heating".
It is saturated by especially "sticky" kind of male energy
"yang", which after entering our bodily system displays
the tendency to chock our channels of energy flow and
does not wants to leave our system. Thus this "sticky"
energy heats us later sickly for a long time, frequently
leading to almost immediate illnesses. Ancient Chinese
used to recommend to strongly refry from eating these
fruit and foods, while if we eat them, we should do
this eating in a moderation. After all, if we eat too
much of them, then they are to induce an illness in us.
One needs also obey the rule, that after eating such
something that is "wet-heating", we should balance this
by an immediate eating something "cooling" (i.e. something
with the domination of energy "yin"). To this category
of "wet-heating" fruits belong, amongst others: mango,
mandarins, grapes, rambutan, chempedak, jack fruit,
and several other kinds of fruits. In turn the "wet-heating"
food includes practically everything that is fried in
a high temperature and in the presence of fat (i.e.
that is "deep fried").
According to
ancient Chinese knowledge, the whole skill of eating, in
this also eating fruits, and also the skill of maintaining
our body in health, depends on such consumption of
fruit and food, that both energies "yang" and "yin"
mutually balance each other. (After all, even the
current European saying goes that "we are what we
eat".) Expressing this in other words,
in order to be healthy, energies
of our body must by kept in the state of continuous
balance. If any of these two basic kinds of
energy begins significantly dominate in us over the
other kind of energy, then our body develops an illness.
Therefore, the most beneficial is eating of fruits and
food which is "neutral". However, if it happens that
we eat a large quantity of something "heating", e.g.
durian, then immediately afterwards we should also
eat energetically equivalent quantity of something "cooling",
e.g. after durian eat the same amount of mangosteen,
or twice as much pears - which cool a bit less than
mangosteen, or three times as much of a mildly cooling
melon, etc. Otherwise, the heating energy of the eaten
fruit or food, in this case durian, in males in which
normally dominates the "yang" energy, may cause e.g. a
sore throat during the night. Similarly such a night
sore throat may be caused in these males by unbalanced
"wet-heating" energy of a large portion of fried chicken,
or a large portion of deep fried potato chips (fritters).
The above
should be complemented with the information, that
also in an old Polish cooking folklore, principles
of balancing the dishes from energies point of view
were used practically, which were very similar to
the principles used by ancient Chinese and described
on this web page (perhaps old Poland was also
influenced by Chinese via Tatars and Mongols).
My own mother originated from an old family of
Polish professional cooks, many generations long.
For example, my grandmother was a quite famous
professional cook which worked in many palaces
of her time, and also her mother and my
grand-grand-mother was a similarly famous professional
cook working in many palaces of her time. My mother
always kept repeating to us, which foods or ingredients
must NOT be eaten or mixed with which others, while
which ones should be mixed or eaten together. In the
stupidity and irresponsibility of young age, neither
myself, nor any of my brothers write down these
principles. So their secret my mother took with herself
to the grave. But now I am extremely sorry for this
my lack of foresight. The only lesson which I utilise
from these old reminders of my mother, is that I should
avoid eating meals that are designed by present "modern"
cooks, and mainly try to eat traditional dishes which
are known to people for a long time. The reason is that
present "modern" cooks compose their dishes in complete
ignorance of the empirical knowledge about the energy
composition of foods, which was gathered during centuries
of observations (no wonder that products of present cooks
frequently are called the "junk food"). Eating products
sweated out by present-day cooks frequently makes us
only increasingly more sick. In turn old traditional
dishes were composed according to this vital empirical
knowledge. So eating these traditional food maintains
our health. When I recall now these frequent remarks
of my mother about what and how should be eaten, or
NOT eaten, then whatever I am writing on this web page
about the culture and philosophy of eating that originates
from ancient Chinese, it turns out for me just to be
the refreshing and formalizing the knowledge which in
my childhood was served to me in my family home.
Independently
from old Polish kitchens, similar traditions of three
different kinds of energy utilises in practice also
old Indian kitchen. However, Indians use slightly different
terminology and different definitions, which are based on
statements of the verdic philosophers. According to these,
the energy contained in food can display one out of three
possible forms, which Indians call: sattva
(means "neutral", "pure", or "subtle"), tamas
(means "inertial", "tiring", "sloth"), and rajas
(means "energising", "hot", "active"). These forms roughly
correspond to kinds of energies contained in food, which
ancient Chinese used to call "neutral", "yin", and "yang".
* * *
Photographs of tropical fruits
which are presented here, and also descriptions of their taste,
size, appearance, and composition, are prepared by myself. In turn
the less known to people characteristics of these fruits, I am
reporting on the basis of folklore description of them, which
I heard in tropical countries in which these fruits grow, and
where people eat them on everyday basis. While reporting these
folkloristic descriptions, I do not try to verify them from
the point of view how much truth they carry in themselves,
although if I know any evidence in support of specific
folkloristic claims, then I indicate this evidence here.
(Notice that you can see the enlargement
of each photograph from this web site, simply by clicking on this photograph.
Most of the Internet browsers that you may use, allow also to
download
each illustration to your own computer, and then look at it, reduce or enlarge
the size of it, or print it, with your own graphical software.)
Fig. 1: A cluster of coconuts on a Malaysian coconut
palm. The photograph taken in January 2004 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Each one out of these coconuts is of size of a human head. They
are still unripe and in the process of growth. In the state shown
here only the "coconut water" contained in them is suitable for
drinking. After maturing, their orange or greenish outer surface
changes into a dark-brown viscous cocoon, i.e. the so-called
"husk", in the centre of which a ripe, fully developed nut is
protected, with the content described below.
For the first time in my
life I saw a shell from a coconut in a miniature although intriguingly
equipped museum which in old times was located in glass cabinets
on corridors of the Primary School No 1 in Milicz. (I described
this museum in item 9 from internet web page on the town of
Milicz.)
In times when I was attending my primary school, a coconut was
almost impossible to see in Poland. So spoken stories, and also
this well exposed shell, indicating that somewhere in a distant
world there is a nut which looks almost like a Polish hazelnuts,
but which has a size of a human head, were really able to inspire
imagination of children. Actually it was this shell that inspired
in my day-dreams that one day I will be travelling through distant
tropical islands, where such coconuts grow, and that I will be
eating them in large quantities. (I believed than, that coconuts
are only a larger version of the well-known to me hazelnuts, and
that they maintain this excellent taste of the Polish hazelnuts.)
As all powerful day-dreams from the village of
Wszewilki,
also this dream has fulfilled. (After all, the village
Wszewilki
is a place where human dreams always come true.) In fact presently
I am relatively frequent visitor in tropical islands where coconuts grow.
Also I frequently drink "coconut water" from young coconuts, which
(the water) I like very much. However, it turned out that I do not
like eating coconuts because somehow they are not my favourites.
(I still prefer to rather eat hazelnuts, or the fruit of Malaysian
"durian" shown in Figures 4 and 4(b) - which (the "durian") is
officially considered to be the most tasty fruit in the world.
* * *
The above could be complemented
with the information that in recent years a mysterious illness appeared
in tropical countries. It kills pallm trees in a similar manner as
another mysterious illness kills elm trees in Europe. Because of
this illness, palm trees are disappearing recently with a shocking
speed. The description of this mysterious illness in provided,
amongst others, in an article "What's killing the palm trees?"
by Randolph E. Mccoy, published in the Journal
National Geographic,
issue dated on July 1988.
* * *
From the energy point of view,
coconuts belong to tropical fruit that are slightly "cooling".
In old days Chinese used to recommend eating them in a moderation.
They used to also recommend, that after eating them, they should
be neutralised by eating an equal amount of something heating -
especially if the eating person is a women with a strong "yin"
energy. However, in present times this recommendation does NOT
need to be respected so pedantically, because we anyway eat too
much "heating" food - as this is explained in the introduction
to this web page.
About coconut palms,
an old legend from Pacific islands states as follows: "In old
times, when God still used to talk to people, inhabitants of
coral atolls asked Him as follows. God, to people who live on
large continents you gave extensive forests which are full of
various animals and trees, rivers with fresh drinkable water,
fields for planting crops, paddocks, crops, fruits, and various
home animals. In turn to us you gave empty islands on which
apart from sand is almost nothing else. So please gave to us
something, that is going to replace all these goods that
You gave to people who live on large continents. After hearing
this, God gave the coconut palm to the islanders. This single
coconut palm replaced by itself all the goods received by
people from large continents."
Actually, coconut palms
seem to be the most useful vegetation on Earth. They grow on sandy
islands without rivers or lakes with fresh water and surrounded
entirely by salty ocean. Their roots are capable of taking water
if around only salty ocean water exists. Also practically every
their component has a multitude of different applications. For
example, trunks from coconut palms are used to build houses and
bridges. Leaves from this palm are utilised for weaving mats and
baskets, while extracts from these leaves are used for medicines
and in cooking. The sap taken from palms trunks, after being
boiled provides a tasty "palm sugar". In turn a liquid sap that flows
from a cut flowers of coconut palms, is actually a tasty and
immediately ready for drinking sweet alcohol drink called "toddy" -
of the taste resembling European drinking honey of a high quality.
In turn huge like human heads nuts of coconut palms provide an
entire array of useful products. The exterior, hairy layer of
these nuts, in English called a "husk", is used for weaving
strong ropes and for producing brushes and brooms. The hard shell
existing under this "husk" is used for production of various
containers and dishes. It is so hard, that on islands that have
no clay nor metals for making pots, it is used for cooking
above fire. Under this shell there is white, edible layer of coconuts, called
a "kernel". This kernel can be eaten raw or after being cooked.
After it is melted on fire it turns out into edible oil from
which some time ago "margarine" was produced. From this kernel
also a thick, tasty, "coconut cream", can be squizzed. In turn
after being mixed with water, this "coconut cream" can be turned
into "coconut milk". After being dried out, this white kernel
turns out into the so-called "copra" from which presently
several hundred different cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and chemical
products are manufactured. Finally the free space that is
contained inside of the "kernel" is filled up with a tasty,
healthy, "coconut water". This coconut water has several
priceless attributes, for example it is sterile, contains
all ingredients that are necessary for life, and is very
tasty. Thus, in drastic cases it is used by doctors as a
replacement "drip" dosed directly from a coconut to veins
of people who need medical help or dripping sustenance to
survive. This water is also very tasty for a direct drinking
(I personally love the taste of it). In Malaysia it is called
the "lions' drink" because it enforces body and provides
sustenance to it, so that the consumer feels like a "young lion".
I personally recommend to everyone who arrives to tropical
countries: if you are afraid to drink in tropics anything
local to avoid the food poisoning, then instead of drinking
the bottled coca-cola which only destroys your health, rather
drink sterile and tasty "coconut water". Only make then
sure that this coconut is open in your presence, and also that
you are allowed to drink it through a straw directly from
a coconut shell - this will guarantee that the water
contained in it, and drunk by you, is still sterile
and fresh.
Summarizing the above,
truly there is no other plant on Earth, which for people would
have equally many applications, as the coconut palm has.
Starting from around 1970s,
in Malaysia oil palms gradually eliminate coconut palms shown in
"Fig. 1". This is because the nutritional value of small nuts
from oil palms - these shown in Fig. 2(b), is even much higher
than the nutritional value of coconuts. So practically at the
moment almost entire production of palm oil and palm margarine
in the world is carried out from these oil palms, instead of
(like previously) from coconuts.
A single nut from oil
palm tree has a size of European blue plum. The outer layer of
such a nut is composed of currently unused pulp similar to one
from our miniature wild "ornamental (Eden) apples". Inside,
under a layer of this pulp, a small "shell" of the oil palm nut
is located. This "shell" is of a size of typical hazelnut. But the
shell of it is so hard, that I had difficulties with cracking it with
the use of a hammer. (No way that someone could split it with
own teeth, like in Poland we do this with hazelnuts). Inside
of this shell, a solid "kernel" of the nut is located. The
kernel has the size and also approximate taste of European
hazelnuts. It is this kernel that is used for manufacturing
all the goodies produced from oil palm nuts. It presently includes
several hundred different products for consumption, medicine,
cosmetics, chemicals, etc. Of course, the most important out
of all these products is the "palm oil", which we later eat
in the form of a healthy, highly nutritious, and tasty "palm
margarine". So if the reader eats sometimes palm margarine,
it is almost sure, that it originates from "bunches" of tropical
oil palm nuts, shown here in "Fig. 2(b)".
Fig. 2: Me (dr Jan Pająk)
photographed on an edge of oil palm plantation. Starting from
around 1970s, in Malaysia one may drive many kilometres through
forests entirely composed of such oil palm trees. In fact forests
of such oil palm plantations are in Malaysia equally common and
equally sizable, like are pine tree forests in Poland.
Fig. 2(b): An entire "bunch" of ripe nuts from
an oil palm tree, that was cut out from an oil palm tree and
fell to the ground.
As this can be seen from the above photo, it looks slightly
similar to a bunch of our grapes. Such a "bunch" weights tens of kilos,
and usually is long at around half a meter. It is composed
of hundreds of small oil palm nuts. Each single such oil palm
nut from this "bunch" has a size and a colour of an European
blue plum (i.e. such still ripe incompletely and partially red).
Fig. 3: Banana tree. The above photograph shows not
only how the trunks and huge smooth leaves of this tree look like,
but also shows how banana flower looks like (see this long, violet,
cone-like shape), and also how look like rings of miniature banana
fruits, which gradually grow right behind this cone-shaped flower -
as soon as this flower extends its length, blooms in ring-shaped
garlands, and is pollinated. (Notice that each banana tree blooms
only one time in the entire life. So the banana flower shown above
is NOT so easy to be seen in tropics, because on each banana tree
it appears only a single time during the entire lifetime of this
tree - usually when the tree is still relatively young.) Many
components of banana trees are utilised by people who live in
tropics. Of course, most widely are used tasty, sweet,
and highly nutritious bananas, means fruits from these trees.
Sometimes people cut off also the flower from this tree and
eat it as a kind of crispy vegetable (after spicing, it is used
for preparation of kinds of salads). Huge and smooth banana
leaves are used in tropics instead of saucers. Until today in
some restaurants in Malaysia, sometimes very exclusive ones,
various dishes can be served on such banana leaves. But one
needs to remember then, that these dishes one supposed to eat
with fingers. As I was sorry to experience it once myself, if
someone uses cutlery (i.e. knife or fork) for these dishes,
the sharp edges of this cutlery cut through a thin banana
leave. In the result, exotic sauces which saturate these
dishes flow down at trousers of such unexperienced eater,
spoiling later the entire evening (and sometimes also the
entire clothing).
In old times also
juices that circulate in banana tree trunks were utilised.
These juices are extremely poisonous. So in tropical countries
where bananas grow, these juices are used in a similar function,
as the famous "curare" is used in Amazonian jungles. Means
sometimes poisonous arrows are saturated with these juices,
which after being shot at enemies or animals, kill them instantly.
In order to be even more interesting, these banana juices are
only poisonous if they enter the bloodstream. But if someone
eats these juices, then stomach chemicals dissolve them completely
and they do NOT cause any harm to the eater. Therefore in old
times they were used for poisoning darts used in hunting. They
killed animals, which then could be eaten safely. About a
lightning-strike-like poisonous effect of banana juice, my friends
from the "Universiti Malaya" (School of Medicine) in Kuala
Lumpur carried out thorough medical research. Outcomes of
these research were published in a following scientific article:
S.K. Lee, L.L. Ng, S.I. Lee: "Experiments with Banana Trunk Juice
as a neuromuscular blocker", The Australian Journal of Experimental
Biology and Medical Science, Vol. 58, 1980, pp. 591-594.
When mentioning here
about "curare" from Amazonian jungles, I should explain also
that in Malaysia grows a tree, the juices of which produce a
poison which is related to this famous "curare". This Malaysian
version of "curare" is equally deadly as the original one which
is produced in jungles of Central America. It is produced from
juices of the tree, which grows widely in jungles of Malaysia
and is called the "Ipoh tree" (notice, that the name
"Ipoh" is also a name of sizeable city in Malaysia - this city
was so named because of the tree, which used to grow in jungles
around it in large quantities). Similarly as this is done by
natives of Amazon with the original curare, also local hunters
from Malaysian jungles used to saturate with this curare from
the "Ipoh tree" their miniature darts shot from "blowpipes".
If such a poisonous dart even just scratched an animal, this
animal immediately died as if it was hit by a lightning.
In tropical countries
banana trees are also used for a whole range of occult purposes
and for magic. According to folklore believes, they have a very
powerful spirit, which can be compared to a human spirit. These
believes state, that the spirit of banana trees can scare people equally
effectively as a human spirit. Therefore in tropics usually these
trees are cut down immediately after they finish their fruiting -
and as I mentioned this before, they produce fruit only once in
the entire their live. The reason is that people living nearby
do not want that spirits of such old trees cause problems amongst
people from the neighbourhood. Out of popular occult applications,
such old banana trees, or other trees called "peepal tree",
usually are used for an ancient Hindu ceremony of the
so-called "mock wedding". (Such a "mock wedding"
is a ritual wedding, in which one of the partners is destined
by horoscopes to die soon after getting married. So by
marrying a tree, this death is shifted onto the tree. Then
the tree dies instead, while the true husband or wife is able
to live until an old age.) Comprehensive descriptions of
these "mock weddings" are provided in subsection I4.4
from volume 5 of monograph
[1/4].
In turn an example of the publicity treatment of a well known Indian
film star and former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai, who "married a tree",
was described in an
article "With this ring, I tree wed", published on page B3 of the newspaper
The New Zealand Herald,
issue dated on Friday, February 2, 2007. One of the matters raised in
this article was the accusation by a society of protection of trees, that
a tree was subjected to an undeserved persecution.
Almost everyone knows bananas.
In tropical countries they are one of the most basic and common
fruit. Various varieties of bananas are also known in there, not
just only a single "Ecuadorian" variety, which usually can be
bought in shops of Europe (and Poland). Each variety of these
bananas taste differently. Also each one of them is eaten in
a different manner and in different circumstances. The best known
such manner is the one which is shown on old films. It depends
on eating a banana in the raw form - immediately after it is
pealed from the skin. (Notice that on old films the empty skin
is typically left on a footpath so that a "villain" could slip
on it.) In tropical countries from the Pacific region in such
a "raw form" only two varieties of bananas are eaten. These
varieties include: (1) middle-sized (so-called "green")
"Ecuadorian" variety, which typically can be bought in shops
of Europe (and Poland), and also (2) miniature (so-called "yellow")
local bananas from Pacific islands. The (green) "Ecuadorian" bananas
have the white interior and are rather deprived of any taste.
In turn these (yellow) miniature bananas from islands of
Pacific have interior yellow-orange, are very sweet, and
have very strong, although pleasant banana flavour (i.e. their
flavour is several times more powerful than the one from Ecuadorian
bananas). The remaining varieties of bananas (there is a whole
range of these), are eaten mainly after being fried or cooked.
Independently from
eating bananas in a raw form, these extremely popular fruits
are eaten in many different processed forms. I personally like the most
two of these, namely a "banana milk shake", and "banana fritters".
The "banana milk shake" is a very tasty banana cocktail,
obtained through blending in a mixer one banana fruit together
with around a half of litre of milk sweetened to the taste (i.e.
in my case - with around 2 spoons of sugar being added). In
turn "banana fritters" are a kind of fried desert, which
is very popular in exclusive tropical restaurants. It is made
through dipping a peeled banana (i.e. a banana deprived the
skin) in a liquid dough - identical to the dough which in Poland
is used for pancakes, and then throwing this banana to a
boiling oil. It is taken out from the oil immediately after
the surface of the dough assumes the golden colour - i.e. the
colour that assume deep-fried potato chips. "Banana fritters"
are eaten hot together with vanilla ice-cream (one portion of
ice-cream for each fritter). Before eating, these fritters
are additionally covered with a liquid caramel syrup. They
taste superb - I advice to try them.
However, inhabitants
of the tropical Pacific islands claim that bananas should
NOT be eaten when one has a cold of cough. This is because
they intensify the production of "flame" in the throat, and
also intensify coughing and sneezing. In a very similar manner
also oranges behave. Thus also oranges should NOT be
eaten in case of having a cold of cough. They irritate lungs,
throat, and nose, thus they also cause and intensify a cough
and sneezing.
All varieties of bananas
have the ability to regulate and to soften the products of our
digestive system. So bananas work opposite to the fruit "persimon"
described in item 20 below. (After all, "persimons" cause the
solidification of the stool.) Bananas are also more gentle and
more safe than modern medicines. In addition to this, they
are a "natural" remedy for softening the stool. So otherwise
than modern medicine, they do not cause any "side effects".
For these reasons bananas are frequently used by various
mothers when their child gets a constipation. In past, when
someone got a constipation, then usually was eating a lot of
bananas.
In a tropical Malaysia
a number of fruit grows, which similarly to bananas have the
abilities to soften the stool or to cleanse the digestive system.
An example of another one (after bananas) is "mango" described
in item 13 below. However, the most famous out of these cleansing
fruits are: (1) a wild fruit from Malaysian jungle, locally called
"jering", and (2) another wild fruit from the jungle, locally
called "petai". Both these fruits have the attribute, that if one
of them is eaten raw, then it also cleanses the bladder. But if
both of them are eaten simultaneously, then their combined action
is so powerful, that they completely block the urinating. Therefore
the Malaysian folklore forbids eating both of them simultaneously.
From the "yang" and "yin"
energy point of view, bananas, depending on the variety, belong to
several different categories. For example, yellow bananas of
Pacific islands represent a rare kind of a "neutral" fruit,
i.e. the one which is NOT "yang" nor "yin". So one may eat
them without limitations and do not need to worry about
balancing later their energy. In the Pacific region they are
called "yellow bananas" because their interior is of a yellow
colour. In turn green bananas (Ecuadorian) are of the "yin"
kind, means "cooling". In the Pacific region people call them
"green bananas" because before they ripe their upper skin is
of a green colour (after ripening this skin becomes almost the
same yellow as the skin of miniature (yellow) bananas from Pacific
islands).
Malaysian "durian" is
officially considered to be the "most tasty fruit of the
world". In Malaysia it is called the king of fruits.
Durian is a fruit
of the size of a human head. From external appearance it
resembles approximately the appearance of a green, spiky
shell of an unripe European chestnut. Similarly like a green,
spiky shell of a chestnut can be split into two or three
segments, also durian can be split into three to six
segments. In each such a segment resides like an European
chestnut, which is surrounded by a pulpy, yellow substance
of the consistency of ice-cream. Edible is just this pulpy
substance. It has a sweet, superb, heavenly taste. However,
the taste of durian cannot be described, simply because
there is nothing else that would have a similar taste,
thus to which the taste of durian could be compared.
Apart from really
heavenly taste, durian has also this attribute that it smells
terribly. The smell of durian is so intense, that the majority
of hotels and airlines from tropical countries forbids bringing
durian inside. To people who are not used to this smell, the
fragrance of durian is so terrible, that usually they are unable
to force themselves to take this fruit into their mouth. But if
someone manages to get through this initial repulsion, and manages
to try this heavenly fruit, the taste of it is so superb, that
later this terrible smell stops matter. In fact, with the elapse
of time people get used to it. This smell is also not unpleasant
- similarly like a smell of our garlic is not so unpleasant if
one gets used to it. Only that it is extremely powerful.
Because of this powerful smell, various writers are comparing
eating durian to relishing themselves with the most tasty cream
of the world in a public toilet. Others describe experiences of
eating durian as similar to eating garlic-flavoured ice-cream
(understood in sense of intensity of smell, as the taste of
durian has nothing in common with the taste of garlic, similarly
as the smell of durian has nothing in common with the smell of
garlic). I personally love eating durian. Thus I know, that it
is impossible to describe sensations that one experiences during
eating this fruit. Durian simply must be tried by us - only then
we know how it tastes.
With the smell of durian
is connected an interesting phenomenon of extinguishing this smell.
As it turns out, in order to suppress the spreading of smell of durian
over the jungle, and attracting to it too many animals, the shell of
this fruit produces an enzyme which eliminates this smell completely
in a chemical manner. Therefore, after we finish eating durian, it is
enough to drink water which previously was poured into an empty shell
of this fruit, and stirred. (We drink this water directly from the shell
of durian.) Immediately after drinking this water durian stops smelling
in us. We could only dream that there is a similar remedy for the smell
of garlic, i.e. that it would suffice to drink water from a shell of
garlic to cause that garlic does not smell in us any more.
In New Zealand there is a kind
of tasty wild sea bird the size of a medium-sized chicken, which is called
the "mutton bird" (supposedly during a flight it makes sounds similar to
"baaing" of mutton). The smell of this bird is equally powerful like the smell
of durian, only that the bird smells fish, while the smell of durian cannot
be compared to anything. The smell of this "mutton bird" is so powerful,
that locals are joking that around it even flies die in flight from this
heavy smell. The bird can be purchased (already cooked) in fish shops of
southern part of New Zealand, e.g. in Invercargill where I used to live.
So when I emigrated to New Zealand I did not know that this bird smells
so terribly. So I bought one for myself in order to try how it tastes.
I brought it to my flat where I consumed it. In spite that I ate it immediately
(in fish shops of Invercargill it is sold after being cooked, hot, and supplied
with hot potato chips, so that it is ready for eating) during around 10 minutes
that it took me to eat it, my flat was so saturated with a heavy smell of
fish, that it took me later many months to get rid of this smell. This "mutton
bird" also tastes superb, so whenever I had an opportunity I used to buy
one for eating. Only that later I used to eat it in a park. (Unfortunately,
this bird is unavailable in northern parts of New Zealand, where I live
presently.) Thus, I am so used to eating highly smelly delicacies, that
when in Malaysia I tried durian for the first time in my life, the smell
of it did not make almost any impression on me.
From the point of view of energy
that it contains, "durian" belongs to fruits that is strongly "heating".
Chinese recommend to eat it in moderation. Also we need to make sure, that
after eating durian, we immediately neutralise its "yang" energy by eating
an equal amount of something "cooling", e.g. an equal volume of fruits
called "mangosteen".
Fig. 4: A market stall with officially the most tasty fruit
of the world, means with the Malaysian "durian". Photographed in January
2004 in KL. Durian frequently is called the "king of fruits". In fact, does
not exist any other fruit in the world, the taste of which would be equally
famous, as the taste of durian from Malaysia. But we must remember, that
apart from Malaysia, durian is also planted in several other countries,
e.g. in Thailand, or in Australia. However, it somehow so happens, that
otherwise than fruit from Europe, all tropical fruits drastically change
their taste when they grow in different locations. Therefore other than
Malaysian varieties of durian, are NOT so tasty as the most famous Malaysian
durian (actually some of these varieties may taste really awful). For
example, I myself got so disappointed to the Thailand variety of durian,
that after several attempts, I completely ceased purchasing this variety
- I simply consider buying it to be a waste of money. Therefore, if someone
decides to try the taste of durian, I would highly recommend to firstly
start to try the Malaysian durian - shown above and on "Fig. 4(b)". I
personally guarantee that the taste of it is NOT going to disappoint
anyone. In turn other varieties of durian, e.g. from Thailand or from
Australia, one may try only after already knows how the real durian
supposed to taste.
Fig. 4 (b): Here is how I
(i.e. dr Jan Pajak)
look like, when I relish myself with Malaysian "durian" - means when
I enjoy the officially most tasty fruit of the world. Of course, if I ate
myself so much durian as it indicates the number of empty shells shown
on the above photograph, probably I would NOT be able to sleep entire
night, while the energy of this fruit would carry me to roofs of nearby
buildings. This is because durian contains enormous amount of energy,
which after being consumed tries to blow the eater apart. This energy
has such an opinion amongst locals, that if miniature and extremely
shapely Malaysian ladies see a man eating durian, then they start
laugh openly, probably imagining what is to happen soon afterwards.
The fruit of durian is an
"aphrodisiac". Means that it acts similarly as "viagra" pills.
In Malaysia there are folklore believes about it, that if a lady
starts to feed her man with a durian, then she has something frivolous
in mind. This fruit contains so much energy inside, that after eating
several segments of it, one needs to forget about sleeping. Simply
this energy makes us restless the entire night through - unless the male
energy "yang" of the durian is neutralised by eating an equal amount
of female energy "yin" contained e.g. in the fruits named "mangosteen".
Durian is also famous from its
lack of tolerance for alcoholics. If someone eats durian, he/she is
not allowed to drink any alcohol, and vice versa. In case when someone
does NOT respect the anti-alcoholic inclination of this fruit, and e.g.
after eating durian drinks beer, or after e.g. drinking vodka eats durian,
then this person has a guarantee of an adventurous future. In the least
intense case durian will cause in such a person powerful vomiting which
almost throws his/her intestines inside out, and dehydrates his/her body.
In more powerful cases, after vomiting a sore throat appears, similar to
the one which people with the excess of heating energy "yang" develop
after they ate fried food (i.e. ate the food which is also saturated
with the heating energy "yang").
Is there a connection between
durian and my family village named
Wszewilki
- the page of which is available via the "Menu 2"?
Yes, it is! When as a small boy I used to run around Wszewilki, I dreamed
that when one day I become an adult, I will fly to distant tropical
countries, where I will eat exotic fruits like durian. The mysterious
power that is contained in Wszewilki, or in the "Earth's chakra" located
near this village, caused that - similarly as all other powerful dreams
from Wszewilki, also this one come true. So now I am eating not only durian,
but also many other exotic tropical fruits, which I am illustrating on this
web page. (By the way, notice from descriptions on the web page
Wszewilki,
that this extraordinary village, or the "Earth's chakra" located near it,
has a mysterious power which makes all strong dreams to come true. This
fulfilment of strong dreams happened not only to me, but also to all
these who lived in Wszewilki at some stage of their lives, or who just
come to Wszewilki to trigger in this extraordinary village the fulfilment
of their life dreams.)
Fig. 5: Two fruits called "mangosteen" shown in a
close up. In the sense of energy content these fruits represent
an opposite of "durian" (i.e. durian contains the male energy
"yang", while mangosteen contain female energy "yin"). Therefore,
if someone after eating durian still wishes to sleep at nights,
he/she must neutralise the male energy "yang" from durian by
eating a similar amount of the mangosteen fruit. Mangosteen
are also recommended for eating for balancing our everyday
intake of male energy "yang" which is contained in large
quantities in the majority of food and drinks, which in
present times we typically are consuming every day.
Notice, that the
fruit "mangosteen" is also shown on photograph from "Fig. 20".
* * *
From the point of view
of their energy content, "mangosteen" belong to fruits strongly
"cooling". In old times Chinese used to recommend a moderation
in eating them. They also used to recommend that eating of this
fruits is balanced by eating an equal amount of something "heating"
- especially if the eater is a woman. However, in present times
of the excessive eating of "heating" junk food, this old recommendation
does not need to be obeyed so pedantically - as I explained this
in the introduction to this web page.
Tropical fruits named "mangosteen" have
very interesting taste and amazing attributes. They are one of these tropical
fruits, the trying of which I would vigorously recommend to everyone.
Mangosteen fruits are of a size of
our typical apple. However, the visible on photographs, the violet-brown
outer shell of these fruits is thick at around 5 mm (means like a thick
orange skin). So after we peel mangosteen from this very thick shell, we
are left with the white edible kernel which is only as big as a pigeon
egg. This kernel is the edible part of the fruit. It is composed of
several small segments, similarly as the fruits of "mandarins" do. Each
such segment contains inside a green, soft, inedible seed of the size of
a bean or a pea, which after being crushed leaves in mouth rather unpleasant
taste of a green bean. So mangosteen needs to be eaten carefully, to
not crush with our teeth these green seeds. Mangosteen have sour-sweet,
quite refreshing taste, slightly similar to the taste of mandarins,
although much more pleasant and much more refreshing. It tastes superbly.
If someone goes to tropical countries, I highly recommend trying these
fruits. But one needs to remember to buy a lot of it, as from one kilo
of it, after peeling only a handful of edible kernels is left for us.
During peeling and eating
mangosteen, one needs to remember about an unpleasant attribute of
it. Namely the juice. In spite that it has a white colour, it displays
the ability of a permanent brown paint. Also, there is nothing that
would be later able to erase it. Therefore this fruit must be peeled
and eaten very cautiously, to not stain our clothing with the juice
of it. This is because such brown stains of mangosteen juice will
stay on the clothing forever.
The fruit named "papaya"
in Malaysia is one of the fruits eaten most frequently.
Usually this fruit has the shape and external appearance of an
over-ripe European cucumber (i.e. a cucumber which is kept on
field until autumn in order to use it later for seeds). But
typically papaya is much bigger than a cucumber. Smallest
papaya fruit is as large as largest European cucumbers.
The interesting aspect
of papaya fruits are these black seeds contained inside, which
look like seeds of a "bird's cherry" (in Polish named "czeremcha").
Normally these seeds are inedible, but thoroughly removed from
the fruits before eating. (They induce quite unpleasant stomach
pains in the eater.)
But if a tropical girl accidentally got into unwanted pregnancy,
then she used to eat these black seeds from papaya. This is because
the seeds contain an ingredient, which caused that expected
ladies experienced a natural miscarry. In old times, papaya fruits
used to replace present-days medical "abortions". However, presently
these "folkloristic remedies" are used increasingly less frequent,
while women in tropics interrupt their pregnancies the same way as
European women, namely by going to an abortion clinic.
One Malaysian doctor with
whom I discussed the ability of papaya seeds for causing a natural
abortion, claimed that these seeds contain chemical compounds from
the group named "prostaglandins". These compounds are used in medicine
for causing a shrinking of uterus. Thus they are able to cause a
natural abortion.
The above should be supplemented
with an information, that the ability for aborting pregnancies is displayed
also by unripe and very sour pineapples. Therefore women that wished to
miscarry their unwanted pregnancies, in past used also to eat such green
and sour pineapples.
Since we are talking about pregnant
women, it is worth to mention, that during the expecting state such women used
to have the so-called "cravings". An interesting aspect of these "cravings"
was, that such expecting women always seemed to "crave" for eating something
that could seem to be nothing special, but that in a given moment of time or
in a given situation was very difficult to acquire. For example, a typical
"craving" of Polish women usually was an unbeatable taste for fresh strawberries
in cream during a middle of winter. In turn a typical "craving" of women
from New Zealand was eating a "hearing". ("Hearings", in spite of their apparent
commonness, are fish which live only in northern seas. Therefore in past
it was extremely difficult to acquire this fish in New Zealand, means in
the country which is located at the southern end of the world.) Well, to
typical "cravings" of pregnant women from tropical Malaysia, are fruits
locally named "salak". As it turns out, they do not have neither an
interesting taste, precious nutrition, or unique attributes. The only
special thing about these fruits is, that they are extremely
difficult for acquiring.
Fig. 6: A fruit in Malaysia called "papaya",
while in other regions of the world called "paw-paw". (Note that there
is a joke for children about "paw-paw" fruit. It asks: "what is a
paw-paw"? The answer supposed to be: "the end of a leg-leg in a cat-cat".)
The papaya on the above photograph
is cut in half and placed on a saucer. This fruit is usually the least
expensive fruits of tropical countries, although simultaneously it is very
tasty. The inexpensive price of it results from the fact that, otherwise
to other fruits, this one is actually a fruit from a kind of gigantic
vegetable, not from a tree. Edible in this fruit is the red substance
contained under a hard skin. Me personally the taste of papaya fruits
resembles slightly the taste of a sweet Polish carrot roasted over an
open fire.
* * *
Juice from papaya fruits is also used
for cosmetic purposes. It displays the ability for whitening the skin. Thus
tropical beauties, who in spite of frequent exposure to the action of powerful
sun, still wish to have white skin, usually wash their skin with the papaya
juice, or they use a soap containing papaya juice.
From the energy content point
of view, "papaya" belong to "neutral" fruits. Chinese claim that one may
eat any amounts of these fruits without causing undesirable consequences.
Fig. 7: A tropical fruit from the family of
"grapefruit", in Malaysia called "pomelo".
Pomelo is a huge fruit. The size
of it exceeds the size of a human head. It belongs to the same family
as "grapefruit". But is sweeter than a "grapefruit". Inside it looks
slightly similar to a gigantic lemon, in which membranes between
subsequent segments are thick like shoe soles and are impossible to
bite through them. Therefore, before eating, this fruit must be firstly
peeled from the thick skin and from these membrane between segments.
The remaining, grainy substance is edible, with a sweet-bitterish
taste. It contains gigantic seeds inside, which resemble huge seeds
of lemon - these are inedible. As this is the case with almost every
tropical fruits, also the taste of "pomelo" drastically depends on the
area in which the fruiting tree is growing. The most tasty "pomelo"
grow in vicinity of the Malaysian city Ipoh. (I.e. the same "Ipoh",
which is named after the "Ipoh" tree that produces a Pacific version
of the "curare" poison.) So if anyone plans to visit Malaysia, I
recommend that for the first time in life he/she tries "pomelo" from
the city Ipoh. Only "pomelo" from Ipoh taste really superbly. Later,
after one knows how really these fruits supposed to taste, one may
also try it from different locations as well.
From the energy content point
of view, "pomelo" belong to the "neutral" fruits. Chinese claim that one
may eat any amounts of it without causing undesirable consequences.
The fruit named "chempedak"
belongs to the group of most tasty tropical fruits. I highly
recommend trying how it tastes.
This fruit is relatively large.
In fact, the one shown on the photograph here is one of the smallest I
met so-far, and it still extends beyond edge of a large fruit saucer.
In normal cases, this fruit is around a half of meter long, while
the diameter of it may exceed 30 cm. After being opened it looks as if
it is filled with wet wood powder, while in this powder every now and
again there are these edible "chestnuts". Each such edible "chestnut"
in fact does look like a light-coloured, unripe horse chestnut, only that
on outside it is surrounded with edible fibrous substance of a brown
colour. This soft edible substance is to be separated from the "chestnut-like"
seed, and eaten, while the seed is being thrown out. The taste of this
fruit is rather unique and cannot be compared to anything else. It is
very sweet and extremely exotic. Tastes superbly and literally melts
in mouth. It is so tasty, that when I start eating it, then independently
how much of it is there, I am unable to stop eating until everything
is eaten up. The fruit has almost no fragrance, but only a very slight
aroma which is unique for it and very difficult to describe.
From the energy content point
of view, "champedak" belong to the "wet-heating" fruits. Chinese recommend
that one should display a moderation in eating it. It is also recommended,
that after eating it one should neutralise the undesirable consequences
by eating an equal amount of something that contains the "cooling" energy.
Fig. 8: Tropical fruit called "chempedak".
Similarly as in case of durian and many other tropical
fruits, also the taste of this fruit strongly depends
on the area when it is grown. The most tasty "chempedak"
grow in the vicinity of "Genting Highland". However,
these most tasty ones are very difficult for getting
and one needs to have good connections to be able to
purchase one of them. But their taste is worth trouble,
because they literally melt in mouths. Unfortunately,
the same kinds of fruits grown in other regions have
already an average taste and cannot be even compared
to these most tasty ones.
Fig. 8 (b): The entire fruit of a tropical
"chempedak" after being opened. Visible are edible
parts (chestnut-like fruit) contained inside of the
shell.
Fig. 8 (c): Fruit of tropical "chempedak"
after being taken from the shell and served on a saucer
in a form ready for eating.
Fig. 9: Market stall in Malaysia with the mixture
of fruits called "chempedak" with other tropical fruits called
"nangka" or "jackfruit". ("Nangka" is the name of this fruit
in Bahasa Malaysia - means the language of Malays, in turn
"jackfruit" is the English name of the same fruit.) Actually
both these kinds of fruits are very similar to each other
externally and internally, and an average European usually
is unable to distinguish them from each other. ("Chempedak"
have like small, bold spikes, in turn "nangka" or "jackfruit"
have the skin smooth, without spikes, although it looks like
a skin from snake. In turn the edible interior of the chempedak
is brown, while the nangka is orange.)
After being open,
"jackfruit" look almost identical as "chempedak" shown in
Figures 8(b) and 8(c). The only difference in appearance
is their orange colour. But the difference in taste is
more noticeable.
* * *
From the energy content point
of view, "jackfruit" belongs to the "wet-heating" fruits. Chinese recommend
that one should display a moderation in eating it. It is also recommended,
that after eating it one should neutralise the undesirable consequences
by eating immediately an equal amount of something that contains the
"cooling" energy.
fruits named "jackfruit" are
relatively similar to the fruits named "chempedak". But they are less
tasty from "jackfruit", although chipper and more common. In Malaysia
they can be bought practically everywhere, means on fruit markets,
in supermarkets, and also already fried in food stalls on the side
of roads. The edible parts of "jackfruit" are orange (while the
edible parts of "chempedak" are brown).
fruits "nangka" or "jackfruit"
have average taste, although quite pleasant and I personally like eating
them. They taste completely different than "chempedak" do (i.e.
incomparably less interesting and exotic). Their attribute is that they
are very difficult for digesting, thus after being eaten they remain in
the stomach for days as if someone ate bricks. In Malaysia they can be
purchased practically at almost every fruit stall, so there is no
difficulty in tasting them. However, one need to take notice to eat
them immediately after taking from their cocoon, because then they
fast go bad - for an European eating such old/bad fruits usually means
food poisoning and the necessity to spend the rest of vacation in
a toilet (as described in item 21 below).
Out what I remember, in
Europe typically we rarely eat fruits in form other than raw.
Apart from processing them for making soups, compotes, marmalades,
jams, or for fillings in various cakes, only apples we eat sometimes
after previous frying them in a form of like-pancake. Sometimes
scouts fry carrot above open fires. In turn in tropical countries,
independently from eating fruits described here in raw forms, and
also independently from processing these fruits for purposes similar
as Europeans do with their fruits, almost all fruits in tropics is
also eaten after being cooked or fried. One kind of fruits frequently
eaten after frying, is the "jackfruit" described here - it is eaten
in many different fried forms. For example, in Malaysia it can be
purchased on stalls after it is dipped in flour and then deep-fried
like potato chips. It tastes quite good. Similarly, dipped in flour
and deep-fried like potato chips, are sold over there various kinds
of bananas, and several other kinds of fruits described here.
This fruit is sour-sweet.
I personally do NOT like it much, as for me it is too sour.
But my brother, who likes sour fruit, always is impressed by
it. Fortunately, the sweetness of it compensates the sourness,
so I am able to eat it - although I am not crazy about it.
It is eaten after being cut into thick slices. One eats with
a spoon the pulpy, watery content that fills up the interior
of it. Edible is the entire content of it, with the exception
of a green skin. This content has a consistency of a white
custard, only that a custard usually is not sour-sweet, while
this fruit is.
From the energy content point
of view, "soursop" belongs to the category of "neutral" fruits. Chinese
claim that one may eat any amounts of it without causing undesirable
consequences.
Fig. 10: A stall with tropical fruits named "soursop".
This fruit is a favourite of my brother. The brother almost
worships the taste of it. The fruit has a powerful sour-sweet
taste. I am not crazy about it, although I can also eat it.
* * *
By the way, it is very
interesting why two brothers, who supposed to have the same
genetic composition, and who both are brought up on the same
meals of their mother, have so different taste preferences.
After all, according to all theories of present orthodox
science, both with my brother we should like or dislike
exactly the same fruit.
Fig. 10(b): A single fruit of "soursop".
Fig. 11: Indescribably sweet tropical fruits now called "ciku",
while in past called "chiku". At the top of this photograph one whole
fruit is shown. Below another fruit cut horizontally in two halves is
shown, while one of these two halves is further cut vertically into
two quarters. This fruit looks like a miniature ball for rugby. The
size of it is similar like the size of a "kiwi" fruit, "passion fruit",
or a middle-sized pear. The interior of it is juicy, with a nice brown
colour, looking like syrup or honey. It is sticky from the sweetness.
The fruit contains also black, hard, inedible seeds (one of these seeds
is visible on the photo above) that look like black pumpkin seeds.
"Ciku" fruits (old spelling of this
fruit was "chiku") is the size of "kiwi" fruit (which probably is known
to the majority of people), or a middle sized pear. It is extremely sweet.
The sweetness of it is so powerful, that myself personally I am not able
to eat it - for me it is too sweet. In fact, during eating the sweetness
of it almost burns our mouth - similarly like selected varieties of Turkish
sweets also tend to almost burn our mouth. But locals, who from the childhood
are used to this indescribable sweetness, love the taste of this fruit.
It also has quite a strong taste of a wild fruit. Therefore, to the taste
of this fruit one needs to get used, before one begins to appreciate it.
From the energy content point
of view, "chiku" belongs to the category of "neutral" fruits. Chinese
claim that one may eat any amounts of it without causing undesirable
consequences. This neutral character of this fruit, combined with the
extreme sweetness, causes that local people who like it, usually eat
a lot of it.
Guava is a kind of round tropical pear.
The surface of it is almost always uneven and grooved, like the one on left
side of the photo. If a smooth guava is born, like the one on the right side
of the photo, locals are reluctant in buying it, as a smooth surface means
uninteresting taste. Guava not only has a size of a large, round pear, but
also a strong taste of an unripe but aromatic pear. During eating is hard,
but highly aromatic. However, just by itself is not good for eating.
Therefore, it is eaten always after being peeled from the skin and cut
into small segments, when each segment is sprinkled with a thick layer
of grated sweet-sour dried Chinese aromatic plum. This grated
preserved plum adds very interesting flavour to guava fruits. Similarly
like the taste of majority of tropical fruits, the taste of guava is
very difficult to be described. In the Pacific region people eat
quite a lot of guava because it is so aromatic, quite inexpensive,
and also because it is the fruit "neutral" from the energy point
of view.
From the energy content point
of view, "guava" belongs to the category of "neutral" fruits. Chinese
claim that one may eat any amounts of it without causing undesirable
consequences.
Fig. 12: An interesting fruit called "guava".
Shown are two fruits lying in the back part of the saucer.
Just by itself this fruit is NOT pleasant for eating. But
it takes an interesting taste if one sprinkles it with
the grated aromatic Chinese preserved plum. In the lower
part of the saucer three such preserved plums from China
are visible. After these plums are grated (on a grater)
usually they are sprinkled over pieces of guava that
before were peeled from the skin and cut into small segments.
The plums (used for sprinkling guava) are also very
tasteful, and Chinese frequently give them as a snake
to their guests. They have a sour-sweet taste, and
high aroma. After being dried out, their surface
becomes covered with sugar. This sugar represents the
crystallised form of their own, natural sugar, NOT a
sugar added artificially during drying.
Fig. 13: No, these are not fruits of "mango".
These are Malaysian variety of "custard apples", similar
to the ones shown below on "Fig. 14". As one can see
from the above photograph, in Malaysia two varieties
of this fruit are available. They differ amongst themselves
by colour. One variety obtains a blue colour while becomes
ripe. The second variety stays green even when it is already
ripe. Both these varieties taste almost identical, and very
similar to the Australian variety shown below in Figure 14.
Mango fruit
does not need to be illustrated. This is because everyone
knows the appearance of a yellow European plum. So if we
increase in our mind the size of this yellow plum, so that
become equal to the largest tomatoes that we know of, then
we obtain the appearance of a mango fruit.
Mango is a large fruit
very similar to a giant yellow plum. It has a large seed
surrounded with a lot of hard fibres. It also has an inedible
thick skin. Therefore before eating, is must be peeled from
this skin, while the large fibrous seed must be removed from
it. Whatever remains, is edible.
Mango is very sweet
fruit. It is widely known from its ability to make people
fat quickly. Because I love the taste of it, usually during
vacation in tropics mango is the major reason why I gain
weight in there. It is very tasty while eaten fresh and raw.
It is even more tasty (and more fattening) when it is poured
with fresh, sweet cream.
Inhabitants of tropics
claim that eating mango fruits causes watery stools in eaters.
Therefore frequently it is eaten on purpose, as a kind of mild
medicine - if someone has a constipation. Of course, it is also
eaten in normal circumstances. However, people avoid eating it,
if they have a runny stool. After all, then it turns this
runny stool into a regular diarrhoea.
From the energy content point
of view, "mango" belongs to the "wet-heating" fruits. Chinese recommend
that one should display a moderation in eating it. It is also recommended,
that after eating it one should neutralise the undesirable consequences
by eating immediately an equal amount of something that contains the
"cooling" energy.
It is quite an
unusual fruit. In fact, the consistency of it inside
is very similar to a "custard".
"Custard apple"
has two basic varieties, a "wild" Malaysian variety, and
an Australian variety. The Australian variety is shown in
Figure 14, while two "wild" Malaysian examples are shown
in "Fig. 13". This fruit is of a size of a typical apple.
Both varieties are similar in size. But the surface of
the Malaysian variety looks like the surface of an
European wild "blackberry" enlarged to the size of an
average apple. It can be eaten ripe in two colours, blue
or green. In turn the Australian variety has rather
a smooth skin, which has a slight "blackberry"
pattern on it. It has only a green colour. The Australian
variety has also less seeds inside and more this edible
custard-like substance. The taste of this fruit is
sweet, with a refreshing sour but very pleasant flavour.
This fruit is very tasty and very pleasant in eating.
Fig. 14: An interesting fruit called "custard apple".
Shown here is a variety planted in tropical part of Australia.
This Australian variety of the "custard apple" has more edible
substance and less seeds than "wild" varieties grown in Malaysia.
However, the taste of all of these varieties are almost the same.
* * *
Fig. 15: Tropical Malaysian fruits called
"pulasan". They belong to the same family as "rambutan"
do. In fact, for an European the appearance and taste
of pulasan usually is indistinguishable from the fruits
called "rambutan". Inside of the saucer 3 complete fruits are
visible. In a lower part 2 fruits are shown after being
peeled from their spiky shell (similar to the shell from
an European chestnut). At the uppermost part of the photograph
two empty such shells are visible, after fruit was removed
from them.
The "pulasan" fruit
shown on this photograph is very similar to another Malaysian
fruit named "rambutan". Only that "spikes" on the shell of it
are slightly thicker than spikes in a rambutan. Rambutan is
a highly popular fruit in tropical countries from the Pacific
region.
Rambutan and
pulasan are seasonal fruits. (Similarly like strawberries
are in Poland.) This in turn means, that one is NOT able
to buy them in every month of the year. They are available
only during their season. If one is in tropics in their season,
then it is worth to try them. They have a nice, quite unique,
sweet-sour, refreshing taste. They can be purchased in almost
every stall at fruit markets.
"Rambutan" grows inside of a "spiky" shell,
similar to green shells that European chestnuts have. It also has approximate
size of an European chestnut contained inside a similar green spiky shell.
Only that shells of rambutan change their colour into dark-red after ripening.
After peeling from this red shell, inside a jelly-like, transparent fruit can
be found, of a size of a pigeon egg. Inside of the fruit a prolonged seed is
contained, quite similar to a seed from fruits of dates. This seed is crispy
and edible. One may eat it. Some people like the taste of it, although the
majority of eaters of this fruit simply dispose the seed. They eat only this
jelly-like, transparent fruit.
Rambutan has a relative, which
is very similar to it. This relative of rambutan is a Malaysian fruit
named "pulasan". The word "pulasan" in Bahasa Malaysia means "torque".
It originates from the fact, that in order to get inside of the fruit
contained in the spiky shell, this shell must be split with a "torque"
from both hands. After such "torque" is applied, this shell cracks,
opening the access to edible fruit inside of it. The shell of the fruit
"pulasan" can be distinguished from the shell of the fruit "rambutan" by
this, that pulasan has thicker "spikes". In rambutan these "spikes" are
as thin as hair. Notice however, that these "spikes" in both these fruits
are soft and they do not damage hands during opening the fruits. The taste
of both these fruits (means the rambutan and pulasan) is almost identical,
and for Europeans remains practically indistinguishable. However, locals
are claiming that "pulasan" is sweeter and more endowed. Therefore usually
it is more expensive.
From the energy content point
of view, "rambutan" and "pulasan" belong to "wet-heating" fruits. Chinese
recommend that one should display a moderation in eating any of them.
It is also recommended, that after eating any of them one should neutralise
the undesirable consequences by eating immediately an equal amount of
something that contains the "cooling" energy.
Langsat grows in bunches like grapes.
Actually the photo from "Fig. 16" shows several loose fruits (i.e. which
were separated from a bunch) on the foreground, and also an entire "bunch"
of these fruits placed on back part of the saucer. Each individual fruit of
such a bunch is of a size of a middle-sized plum. After being peeled from
a thin, white skin, inside segments similar to these from mandarins can be
found. These segments are composed of a transparent, dried-like jelly.
Inside of these edible transparent segments, green seeds are contained.
These seeds are of the size of average pea. One should not bite these seeds,
because they have a bitter taste. During eating, the edible part of this
fruit is sweet, although is also slightly sour. Tastes very good and
refreshing in a hot climate of tropics.
From the energy content
point of view, "langsat" belongs to the category of "heating"
fruits. Chinese recommend that one should display a moderation
in eating it. It is also recommended, that after eating it one
should neutralise its heating energy by an immediate eating
an equal amount of something that contains the "cooling" energy.
Fig. 16: Very tasty Malaysian fruit called "langsat".
* * *
Langsat is only one out of
four different tropical fruits which are available in Malaysia,
and which look quite similar to each other, although taste
differently. These fruits include:
1. Langsat. It
has a white, very thin skin. The taste of it is very pleasant,
sweet-sour.
2. Rambai. It
is a tropical fruit extremely difficult for purchase. I must
admit that I "hunt" many years for it, but so-far I still have
not managed to try it. Supposedly it looks similarly to langsat.
But is strongly sour, although supposedly quite pleasant in
eating.
3. Duku. It
also looks similarly to langsat, although it has a slightly
pinkish and relatively thick skin. It is very sweet and
tasty.
I should add here,
that there is also a hybrid called "duku-langsat". It is a
fruit obtained by crossing of "langsat" with "duku". It has
slightly thicker skin than "langsat" (although thinner than
"duku"), while it is much sweeter than "langsat" (although
more sour than "duku").
4. Longan berry,
which by Chinese is called the "dragon eye" (one should not
confuse the white, grape-like fruits "dragon eye" with red,
vegetable-like "dragon fruit", shown in photograph from
"Fig. 18". Longan berry is of a half of size of langsat.
The skin of it is thin and crispy. It also has inside a
large, black seed with a smooth, glossy surface, of the
size of an European cherry seed.
Fig. 17: Very tasty Malaysian fruits called
"dragon eye" or "longan berry". I.e. the "dragon eye" is
a name given to it by Chinese (it should NOT be confused
with the name "dragon fruit" given to the vegetable-like
fruits shown in photograph from "Fig. 18" below). Longan berry
(dragon eye) is smaller from langsat by a half of size.
The skin of it is thin and hard - but easy to crack. It
also has inside a large seed. The seed is black, with smooth,
glossy surface. It has the size of an European cherry fruit seed.
The above photograph
shows the appearance of the fruits "dragon eye", as well as the
appearance of all ingredients of this fruit. And so, on the
top of this photo whole fruits are visible. They have the
light-brown colour with like brown stripes running through
them. Their size is similar to size of European sour cherry.
In the lower, left part of the photograph, skins taken from these
fruits are shown. In the centre "dragon eye" already peeled
from the skin are illustrated - the top one of them is cut
horizontally to show the seed of it. On the right, two black
seeds from this fruit are shown. The seeds of "dragon eye"
are inedible.
It also grows in bunches as
European grapes. It belongs to a larger group of tropical fruits
from the "berries" category (similarly as "langsat" discussed
previously). But is smaller than "langsat". It is of a size of
typical European "sour cherry". The skin of it is hard almost
like a shell from an egg. On the left side of the saucer (on
photo) several pieces of this hard shell-like skin are shown.
Inside, under the hard skin, the fruit has jelly-like, very
sweet edible part, with a black round seed inside. This seed
has size of a seed from a cherry fruit. Because this sed has
a perfect black colour and smooth, glossy surface, in old times
this seed was used for eyes of dragons in imitations of dragons
used in traditional Chinese dance called the "dragon dance".
This is because of such use of these seeds, the fruit itself
is called the "dragon eye".
Dragon eye is very tasty
fruit. It is very sweet, crispy, and juicy. Eating it is a great
pleasure. It is also easy to peel from this crunchy, egg-shell
like skin, which cracks under the pressure of fingers like
shell from small eggs.
From the energy content
point of view, "dragon eye" belongs to the category of "yang"
type of fruits, means a "heating" one. Chinese recommend that
one should display moderation in eating it. It is also
recommended, that after eating this fruit one should neutralise
their heating energy by immediate eating an equal amount of
something that contains the "cooling" energy.
To me personally "dragon fruit"
resembles one of Polish beets, in which leaves grow out from a kind
of head-like lumping. It is of a size of an average cabbage, and has
a rounded shape. After it is peeled from an inedible skin, it is
white inside with black, poppy-seeds like seedlings spread over the
volume of it. It has a very unnoticeable taste. Thus one needs to get
used to it in order to seek taste in eating it. During a first eating
it appears to have no taste at all.
"Dragon fruit" is also
planted in tropical Americas, especially in Mexico. It is known over
there under a different name of "Indian fig".
From the energy content point
of view, "dragon fruit" belongs to the "neutral" fruits. Chinese claim that
one may eat any amounts of it without causing undesirable consequences.
Fig. 18: Favourite fruit of Vietnamese, called "dragon fruit".
* * *
Fig. 18(b): Here is the appearance of the fruit called
"dragon fruit", after it is peeled from the skin and prepared for
eating. To me it resembles a cotton sprinkled with poppy-seeds.
In fact, also during eating, for me it tastes like a "wet, soft
cotton", deprived of any taste or flavour.
Fig. 19: "Starfruit". The name "starfruit" for
it, originates from the shape that it has. Especially if
it is cut into slices in direction perpendicular to the
central axis of it. Then such slices look like golden
stars of the diameter of our slice from an average apple.
The colour of this fruit is also very nice. It is golden,
similar to the colour of a typical honey. Because of the
beautiful, star-like shape and golden colour of slices
of this fruit, in restaurants from tropical countries
it is used for decorating other dishes. Of course, apart
from decorative value, it is also edible.
Starfruit is sourish.
It also has a powerful taste of "green grass". I personally
do NOT like to eat this fruit raw. But I like to drink
juice made of starfruit - if this juice is sweetened enough.
This is because such a juice has a refreshing aroma,
that is pleasant during drinking, although it leaves
in mouth this characteristic taste of a "green grass".
Starfruit is famous
from its ability to lower the blood pressure. Therefore it
is a favourite fruit of people with high blood pressure.
From the point of view
of their energy content, "starfruit" belong to fruit strongly
"cooling". In old times Chinese used to recommend a moderation
in eating them. They also used to recommend that eating of this
fruit is balanced by eating an equal amount of something "heating"
- especially if the eater is a woman. However, in present times
of the excessive eating of "heating" junk food, this old
recommendation does not need to be obeyed so pedantically - as
I explained this in the introduction to this web page.
Fruit named "persimon" are
NOT liked by everyone. The reason is, that many of them have
quite uninteresting taste - especially if they were grown in
a country which does not have the required amount of sunshine
(e.g. in New Zealand). Such persimons from a low-sunshine areas,
usually taste quite similar to European red carrot which was
roasted on an open fire. However, if they grow in an area which
has enough sunshine, e.g. in Israel, their taste becomes superb.
"Persimon" fruits have
the ability to regulate products of our digestive system, to
make these products more solid and hard. Their special advantage
is that they solidify the stool, but never cause constipation.
So they work opposite to bananas and mango. Therefore in past,
if someone had a deregulated stomach and irregular, or too watery
stool, such someone usually was eating a lot of dried persimons.
(The reason why dried, not fresh, is that dried can be purchased
at any time of year, while fresh are available only during their
season.)
From the energy content
point of view, "persimon" belongs to the category of "heating"
fruits. Chinese recommend that one should display a moderation
in eating it. It is also recommended, that after eating it one
should neutralise their heating energy by an immediate eating
an equal amount of something that contains the "cooling" energy.
Fig. 20: A mixture of tropical fruits. It includes
(counting from the left): (1) greenish "pomelo" which is as
huge as a human head ("pomelo" is shown also in Figure 7),
(2) apple-sized, round "mangosteen" (these below pomelo,
i.e. ones which look like gigantic European blueberries of
the size of average apples), and (3) fruit named "persimon"
(these above, on the right, which look like pumpkins of the
size of typical apples). One of the most tasty varieties of
"persimon" fruits, imported from Israel, is usually called
the "shanon fruit".
Fig. 21: No, it is NOT "tapioca".
Tapioca roots are shown on photograph "Fig. #1"
from a separate web page about
healing.
The above photograph shows "persimons". Three out
of them are fresh, means these are the same fruits
which also in a fresh form are shown in Figure 20
above. In turn next two persimons from the above
photograph are shown after being dried out. (As we
can see this, after being dried out they turn into
white, round, "pancakes" covered with their own natural
sugar.)
In such dried form they can be purchased in food shops
of tropical countries. They are common in these shops,
as dried persimons are used by Chinese for medical
purposes. Namely, they regulate and solidify the stool.
So they work quite similar as tapioca does, only that
their action is less rapid than that of tapioca.
I try
to photograph tapioca for a long time, so that
I could show it on my web pages. Unfortunately,
always for some reasons it becomes impossible.
Therefore I am going to just describe here the
appearance of it. The appearance of tapioca resembles
an European white beet, or tipped in mud a huge
horse carrot. It has a conical shape roughly
resembling a huge carrot. After all, it grows
in the soil like our carrots or beets do. But it
is larger than a typical carrot. In the most
wide end the diameter of it may exceed 10 cm.
The surface of tapioca is dark-grey, like mud.
It is covered in a very rough, dark-grey skin,
and usually covered with roots (that are thin
like hair) and with residues of the soil in
which it grows.
The name for
"tapioca" in Chinese (Cantonese) reads "mook si" - means
"wood". Because tapioca grows in the soil like our beets,
for Chinese it symbolises "buried wood" - means someone's
coffin. For this reason, in the vicinity of auspicious
times, such as Chinese New Years, Chinese do not like
the view of "tapioca". They consider then the sight of
tapioca to be a "bad omen" which suggests someone's death.
So in the vicinity of Chinese New Year, Chinese merchants
do not sell tapioca on their stalls. On the other hand,
because they are only ones who actually sell tapioca,
while lately I stay in tropics always during the vicinity
of Chinese New years, this explains why I am not able to
show a photograph of tapioca here.
Tapioca is a
tropical root. In Europe probably one cannot buy it in
a fresh state, to make a good use of these amazing
abilities of tapioca to heal diarrhoea. Fortunately,
the dried and powdered tapioca is exported from tropical
countries to many countries of the world (e.g. for sure
to New Zealand). Only that it is known in these countries under
a different name. It is called in there the "tapioca starch".
In New Zealand, such a dried and powdered form of tapioca
imported from Thailand I purchased recently under the
name of "Tapioca Starch". I did so when, after returning
from my 2004/2005 vacation in tropics - during which I
managed to save myself from getting even a slightest
food poison, I unexpectedly got a powerful food poison
and diarrhoea while already in New Zealand. (It happened
after I ate something in a "Mac Donald" restaurant.)
So after a few days spend in a toilet, I decided to use
the proven in action healing power of tapioca to get rid
of this powerful diarrhoea. But firstly I needed to
find tapioca and buy it. I looked desperately in various
New Zealand shops in search of this life-giving root.
Finally I got it under this secretive name of "Tapioca
Starch". Immediately I boiled several spoons of it
dissolved in water. I received a kind of jelly soup,
almost identical to the Polish "polewka" soup which
is received after boiling fresh tapioca root - as
described to the right from here. After I drunk around
a half of litre of this jelly soup, again my diarrhoea
disappeared as if someone shut down a tap. Means
that this "tapioca starch" turned out to be
equally effective in healing diarrhoeas as fresh
roots of tapioca are. It is worth to know about this
life-given attribute of tapioca roots and tapioca
starch. It may save us a lot of suffering and troubles.
Tapioca
has a whole array of advantages over methods of
healing bad diarrhoeas by present (official) orthodox
medicine. For example, effects of tapioca are instant
and very spectacular. Practically I do not know any
other medicine that would heal diarrhoeas so fast
and so effectively like tapioca does. It is also a
"natural" medicine, for which I never noticed that
it would leave me with any side effect. (For comparison,
e.g. about "carbon" it is known that it is carcinogenic.
However, this "carbon" is simultaneously one of "medicines"
that orthodox medicine offers us for diarrhoea.)
Furthermore, tapioca does not taste like a medicine,
but like a nice Polish soup "polewka", which c
