Luk Nieng/Jengkol/Jering — An Edible (sort of) SE Asian Seed

Over in another thread, Rene G wrote:I think there's a solid consensus that the gustatory nadir of the picnic was the Burmese snacks from Fort Wayne. David "Excited Pig" Hammond summed it up nicely when he said both were near the threshold of edibility, but wasn't sure on which side. We still don't know exactly what they were. Here are the names of the two treats written down by the shopkeeper in Fort Wayne. Anyone have any idea what we were eating?

Those are pickled Archidendron pauciflorum seeds (luk nieng in Thailand, jengkol in Indonesia, jering in Malaysia, da nyin thee in Burma), a somewhat toxic bean usually used in rendang or curry. I haven't come across them in Chicago but they're not hard to find in the Burmese markets of Fort Wayne. Whether you'd want to look for them is another question.