The mercury is soaring and we can use all the hydration and nutrition we can get. But then, let’s make that summer cooler fun, shall we? Not to forget its health benefits. This is where ice apple or palm fruit steps in. A popular street food in the summers, especially in the hot and dry regions where it is found in abundance, the fruit is also known as tadgola, nungu, taal shaansh , and munjal .
Tender and wobbly, the fruit is encased in the hard shell of the palm fruit. At this stage, the fruit has several health benefits, one of them being it has a cooling effect to shield against the harsh summer sun. However, bite into the hard mature fruit and you might be left with a terrible stomach ache.
I remember the first time I was handed a bowl of ice apples, I was clueless about how to eat them, having never come across any. That is when the elderly gentleman, a street vendor, who’d introduced me to the fruit, helpfully offered, “Simply slit the peel with your finger, drink up the juice and then eat the jelly-like fruit.”
Eager to try, I reached out for a bottle of water to wash the fruit, only to be sternly asked, “Do you wash the flesh of a coconut before you eat it?” He then went on to show me how to select the right fruit. Encased in a tan-coloured peel, the jelly-like fruit is usually filled with ‘coconutty’ water. Ice apples are also used to make better-known food products such as jaggery and palm sugar.
Of course, like all things good, the palm fruit too is used to whip up some great delicacies, such as the ice apple kheer or nungu payasam , palm fruit smoothie, ice apple and plum rose juice, and if you wish to be creative, then puddings as well. The pulp is also dried for a leathery preserve, and the fruit goes very well with flavours such as coconut, lime, mango, pineapple, lychee and kiwi among others.
Rich in vitamins A, B and C, ice apples are a store house of nutrition. They are also high in calcium, potassium, iron, zinc and phosphorous that are great for bone and dental health.
If old wives’ tales are to be believed, the fruit is great to boost immunity as well as metabolism. People with digestive ailments and constipation are encouraged to eat the fruit, as are women in the early stages of pregnancy, to take care of minor stomach ailments and nausea. In some cases, adding palm fruit to the diet is also known to alleviate certain types of skin irritation caused due to chicken pox. And if prickly heat and summer acne are your enemies this season, you know just which fruit to pick up.
