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In the 1950s in Muthukur I saw three species of trees that I didn't see anywhere else since then.
There was this Country Badam tree which we used to call Badam simply because we never saw real almonds while in that village.
The fruit of this tree were reddish and we used to pluck them not for eating...they were inedible. But we held them on the floor edgewise and broke them open with a hammer; and then they revealed tender white country almonds which were lovely to munch.
And then there was this lovely but somewhat dwarf tree we used to call Ganga Ravi ('Ganges Peepal' literally...గంగిరేణి). Its leaves were beautiful just like peepal leaves...broad, narrowing down to long sharp pointed edges.
Its buds were also sharp-edged and we used to spin them like tops on the floor.
And its flowers were extra special...they had petals that were yellow outside but with red-black linings inside.
When the petals of this flower were twisted and pulled, its stem revealed drops of honey that we used to lick and relish.
That is the only flower in which I saw real honey...the rest are known only to honey bees.
Then there was this HUGE tree that bore reddish fruit like big pea-pods. It was called Exo-Tamarind (సీమచింత). We used to bring down their fruit with deftly aimed stones...there was no other way...that tree was wild and thorny. The insides of pods revealed reddish flesh that was good to taste but smelly.
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We had an uncle in the neighboring district of Cuddapah (Kadapa).
Once he brought with him a biggish fruit he called Kirini (కిరిణి). I now know its English name as Muskmelon (खरबूजा) . I think it was grown on the river bed of Pennar that flowed through the Kadapa District.
Its innards were nothing to write home about. But we used to dry its seeds in the sun and they were delectable.
He also brought seeds of what are called Cuddapah Almonds (సారపప్పు). They were perhaps found in the hills and forests of Udayagiri nearby. They looked brown like mini-almonds.
Very tasty but terribly expensive.
Talking of almonds, there is this "almond-eye" that I saw here and there but never the "lotus-eye" (which exists only in the fevered imagination of our poets).
It was in the Kharagpur dry-fruit shops that I discovered real almonds. And pista. Both are good but there was this Akrut that tasted miserable. I don't know why it is so costly...maybe just because it is rare.
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Talking of melons there is this ubiquitous watermelon (तरबूज)...the less said of it the better. Its blood red interiors are scary. And its seeds are not as good as its cousin muskmelon's.
My friend told me that when once, in their engineering college hostel, watermelons were served as after-dinner fruit, its boarders all walked over to their Mess Secretary's room in a procession carrying them and flung them in front of his door to make it look like a battle field.
What about the cucumber?
We used to get it in the Muthukur markets...but before using, it had to be tasted (occasionally bitter).
I don't think its fruit can be eaten whole...though I have read that the British are fond of 'cucumber sandwiches'.
When raw it is deliciously sour in chutney mixed with tamarind...simply heavenly for us Andhras. I can eat dozens of morsels of rice mixed with that chutney.
When ripe it is good in sambar. And dal.
And there is this delicious Cucumber Mustard Pickle made of them (దోస ఆవకాయ).
When dried, cucumber seeds are lovely to munch...they are mixed with broken supari sold in packets that were a rage in Vizagh. Folks used to buy lots of those mini-packets and carry them in their pockets...if they forgot to remove them before washing, they left indelible stains. I hear that (like every good thing in life) supari-munching causes mouth-cancer...among other things.
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I never saw a tomato till I was 10.
One day Father brought a packet of seeds from Nellore and we planted them in our backyard in Muthukur. There was a well there where we kids used to take our open-air bath. And the drained water was irrigating the plants effortlessly.
Within a week dozens of tomato plants sprouted and grew up. And yielded fruit.
Everything about those tomato plants was exotic to us. Their leaves, buds, flowers, fruit (raw and ripe) were beautiful. Tomato plant is truly a Sonnet of Nature.
We used to pluck the raw fruit and they tasted sour. And that made them great for dal. When ripe, we used to eat tomatoes raw and enjoy their novel flavor and taste. And then they went into chutneys, sambar, rasam and mixed curries.
Tomato is said to be enemy of curries while onion their friend.
Because onion, when mixed and fried, gives its flavor to the vegetable without spoiling its innate taste.
While, tomato overpowers the vegetable with which it is cooked...its aggressive color, taste and juice dominate the curry.
But then the cure is simple...tomato-onion curry is simply SUPERB, each helping each...
There is a lesson there...Didi and Modijiee should befriend rather than fight, for the good of Bengal :)
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Speaking of watermelons, there is this naughty kanda padyam by which Tenali Ramakrishna mocks Allasaani Peddanna:
"ఎమితిని సెపితివి కపితము
బ్రమపడి వెరిపుచ్చకాయ వడిదిని సెపితో
ఉమెతకయను తినిసెపితో
అమవసనిసి యనెడు మాట అలసని పెదనా!"
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To be continued...
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