Glossary S
Sampalok is a Filipino word for Tamarind. In the Philippines its pulp/fruit are eaten and used as a souring agent. Its young leaves are also used for souring agent or as filling for whole chicken for grilling to remove its fishy taste.
Sampalok can be cooked as one of the ingredient for Filipino sour stew/soup, like Sinampalukang Manok (Chicken soup cooked with Tamarind) where its young leaves are used. Its fruit brown pulp is made into a sweet candy with tamarind flesh/pulp mashed and cooked with brown sugar
Moreover, in the Philippines, the pulp of the Sampalok fruit is very much used as a souring agent for dishes like Sinigang, a cross between sour soup and stew and also made into delicious candies. Likewise, when the fruit is fully ripe, they are eaten in the Philippines as is with a bit of salt
In Kerala, India, Puli is the Malayalam word for Sampalok. It is the basic ingredient for making their sour soup called Rasam. Meanwhile, Thailand is very popular for their Tamarind candies called Makham Gao that most tourists bring them back home.
Using Sampalok as a souring agent can be a long task as you need to squeezed the pulp from the fruit until you get its juice so my mom rarely use Sampalok as a souring agent. But as a child, together with my siblings and cousins, I enjoyed eating Sampalok as is when fully ripe and in season. It is sold in most wet markets (Palengke) during its season very cheap in the Philippines by a kilo.
I only found Sampalok fruit after 7 years of living in Germany by chance, few packs of ripe Sampalok fruits were offered in one of the groceries I go to and they were imported from Thailand
Other countries also used Tamarind fruits for making sweets or candies. Mexico has its own version called Dulce de Tamarindo. Some countries called them Bolitas de Tamarindo (Tamarind balls)
Sampinit a red fruit being sold in San Pablo City, Laguna market in March so probably they are available during summer months, the seller said it is called "Raspberries" in English.
Sampinit is also called Sapinit and Tungaw-Tungaw. It is a Wild Raspberry (Rubus rosifolius Linn.) which said to grow in the wild and bushes. The fruits can be harvested when ripe and eaten fresh. In San Pablo City Market, the fresh fruits are sold with a small pack of salt or with salt. The fruits can also be processed or made into jams, wine and juice. The fruit has a tangy strawberry taste
Sampinit fruit is said to be good source of phythochemicals that helps fight the growth of cancer cells and development of Alzheimer's.
This exotic fruit is too rare. I have visited a lot of Wet markets (Palengke) around the Philippines and I only saw them sold in San Pablo City Market in Laguna. Unfortunately, I do not dare to taste fruits which is too foreign to me, especially when the weather is too hot.
Raspberries is also called in Filipino as Prambuwesas.
