Guamuchil/Manila tamarind/Madras thorn/Ma kham thet?

Guamuchil/Manila tamarind/Madras thorn/Ma kham thet?

bjt's post on Cremeria Santa Maria reminded me that I wanted to visit this cheese shop on 26th Street, so Friday afternoon Antonius and I drove down to La Villita. We also decided to have lunch on 26th Street, beforehand.

You know the folk wisdom which says you shouldn't go food shopping on an empty stomach? Well, I must report that it's also counterproductive to shop on a stomach filled to near bursting with the Friday Lenten special at El Tecolote: a cup of fava bean soup, two tortas de camaron with nopales and rice, plus a large helping of capirotada (bread pudding) for dessert, for $6.50. By the time we waddled over to the cremeria it was hard to get enthusiastic about more food. We sampled their queso panela (the fresh basket cheese) and bought a half of one, but we'll have to go back another time to really do justice to all the varieties available in this nice looking shop. (Extramsg has several pictures of the store up on his website, by the way.)

The cremeria also has some non-dairy items, including bulk nuts, pickled pigs feet, and Frontera salsa (!). Something that caught my eye was a large jar labeled Guamuchiles. Inside were seeds with brown pulp clinging to them, somewhat reminiscent of tamarind seeds, but smaller. I always feel happy to find something in a store which I've never heard of before, but I was in such a daze then that I failed to do the obvious thing which would have been to buy some of the darn things to try them. So, until my next trip down there, I've been googlizing, and found out that the seeds are from the guamuchil tree, Pithecellobium dulce, which has also been spread to Pacific islands and South and Southeast Asia. Other names for it are Manila tamarind, Madras thorn, and (in Thai) ma kham thet, or ma kham khong (apologies in advance to Erik M; I'm sure that transcription off of Google is pretty inadequate).

So I thought I'd query all you South/Southeast Asian specialists out there: are you familiar with these seeds? Are they just eaten as is in India and Thailand and the Philippines, or are they used in more complex preparations? Are they also available in Chicago's Asian shops? If not and you'd like some, go to the not-so-obvious source of a Mexican dairy store to stock up!

Amata

[From bjt's post:]
Santa Maria Lacteos (y Cremeria)
3424 W. 26th St.
773-277-1760

El Tecolote
3519 W 26th St
Chicago, IL 60623
(773) 277-1490

Amata wrote:two tortas de camaron with nopales and rice

I don't think I've ever had nopales in a torta -- or did you mean you had the torta with a side dish of nopales and rice?

And on this topic of tortas, have you or A ever had huitlacoche in a torta? I've never had it that way, but I was discussing this the other day, and it had been suggested that such things are available. Sounds kind of weird to me, but possible I guess.

Hammond

David, what I had wasn't the sandwich kind of torta. During Lent, a lot of Mexican restaurants feature tortas de camaron as a Friday special. These are small "cakes" of dried shrimp mixed with egg and fried. The rice and nopales were on the side. I think there's some discussion of them elsewhere on LTH, and certainly on old Chowhound threads.

And no, I've never had huitlacoche in a torta (sandwich).

Amata