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When Is A Fruit Not A Fruit |
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Wednesday, 15 July 2009 08:45 |
"Coast Road Rides And A Bag full Of Cashew Nuts"
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Out riding one evening along a coast road in Goa, I’d stopped to enjoy the sea-view across a large cashew orchard. Local Goan people returning home from harvesting the nut, gave me a bag full of this strange fruit, two of which were bearing the nut.
The soft fruit - or false fruit as it’s know technically, which when eaten has the effect of sucking the moisture from your mouth, is used to produce a wickedly strong liquor called arrack or feni.
The nut is roasted to remove the double shell whose phenolic content burns and scars the hands of the nut roasters.
In 2008 India was the third largest producer of this exotic and expensive nut, harvesting over 600,000 tonnes of cashew nuts. The Cashew nut originally brought by the Portuguese from Brazil is now grown in over 30 countries with a warm and humid climate. |
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