Fabulous Native Foods Nutrition: Hearts of Palm, Banana Stem, Salak, and Sago Palm Fruits

An image depicting a rural farming scene of coconut and banana trees in front of rice fields best sums up the native foods of most Asians. However, few will see beyond the obvious hanging fruit, when the two tropical trees have so much more to offer.

If you literally make it to the center, you will find true gastronomic delights waiting for you. Just think, the white rod-shaped center of the tree can be harvested for food!

Palm hearts

‘Look at that pointy tip of the trunk, right at the top of that queen palm,’ he said. ‘That’s where the heart or bud is.’ I’ve been on the trail of the heart of palm since the day that precocious dark-haired boy in class divulged that information to me.

Thinking about it, my heart dropped, because if you cut the tip, you cut it dead. However, palms with multiple stems will survive; because if you cut the main trunk, one of the remaining ones will take its place.

When cutting the trunk, the bark is removed; this exposes the shell that protects the heart of palm. Later, when I heard that the pith of the banana stem is just as good for food, I redoubled my power and my quest for supposedly Sherlock Holmes. I love when family trees keep things new and exciting around them.

banana stem

To me, the pith or heart of the palm looks no different than that of the banana. Afraid that I might act in a hurry, a gardener sternly warned me never to cut down the banana tree until after fruiting or the stem is not fit to eat.

Now, most authentic cuisines are born from what the tree offers. For example, Myanmar’s spicy noodle dish called ‘mohinga’ is nothing without a heart of palm. My observation finds evidence of a food stall folding because the chef had no luck getting this ingredient.

How will I describe the 2 marrows? Well, they are very reminiscent of white rolls of shaved coconut flakes steamed in hollow green bamboo and eaten with a little palm sugar. However, hearts of palm or coconut piths are incredibly good tasting salads, seasoned with salt, lemon juice and coriander. They also go well in savory dishes as an accompaniment to boiled rice. Very finely diced fruit tree bones are lightly fried with lots of garlic and shallots, a splash of rice wine and salt.

health benefits

Surprisingly, the health benefits of the 2 tree cores mirror each other: their high fiber content keeps your digestive system in tip-top shape; both are very low in cholesterol, making them very effective weight loss foods that taste good at the same time; and they are simply excellent for regulating blood pressure with their rich supplies of potassium.

salak fruit

Unlike the rod-shaped heart of palm, the fruits of the salak palm with scaly skin are found growing in clusters right at the base of the palm. There is nothing better than eating fruit picked directly from the tree. An excellent complementary food, salak fruits are good: for the eyes, due to beta-carotene; for your brain thanks to its potassium and pectin, and for your skin, with its antioxidants such as vitamin C and phenolic compounds.

Sago palm fruits

Another palm, queen sago (Cycas circinalis), labeled ‘Nature’s Bread’, used to be the tallest among all other palms. A welcome addition to the Asian diet, it still boasts of producing flour as good as rice flour. The green seeds of Cycas, which look like ambarella fruits, are boiled in water more than three times and then allowed to dry, before being turned into flour to make bread. This is a rare case of a seed whose nutritional value matches that of a grain.

From time to time, to stimulate your flagging appetite, you can have some with these native whole foods. Good, honest, real-tasting food, as only foragers will know, can be a pleasurable and uplifting dining experience that’s also satisfying to the core.

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