Candied cà-na (white canarium or Chinese olive)
It’s not the black stuff they throw on your pizzas or the green thing they toothpick on your sandwich. How many of us city kids have tasted the tartness with a tiny sweet afterpunch of this Mekong delta fruit? It’s addictive like fresh squeezed orange juice on a summer day. Speaking street tongue, it’s nature’s crack in oblong shape.
Eat ’em fresh with chilipepper salt, or candy them with sugar and heat, it’s how kids down South do it with the cà na they shake off from bushes on the riverbanks. And argue if you may, kids know tasty food. The shape is really the only link cà na has with the Western olive (Olea europaea), though it’s at least two times bigger. Does the name “cà na” mean anything?
“Cà” is tomato, and “na” is the northern word for sweetsop, two totally unrelated species to this ovoid fruit. So “cà na” is not a compound noun. I’m no etymologist but here’s my best guess: “cà na” |kah nah| is a shortened vietnamization of the Thai word “kanachai”, from which cultigen taxonomists derive the the scientific name “canarium”, a genus with about 75 species native to the tropics. The cà na we eat and love from those riverbank bushes belongs to the species Canarium nigrum (black canarium) and Canarium album (white canarium), or “trám đen” and “trám trắng” in pure Vietnamese. Another delta variety is Canarium subulatum, pointy at both ends and sappy like green bananas.
Words on the net claim that cà na‘s acidity is good when you have a cold, drink too much, or wants to lower your weight, thus not so recommended for skinny sticks like me. I’ve never popped a fresh one myself, but this is the most (and only) mouth-watering description I could find on the net (translated from the Vietnamese original):
Every year, in roughly August or September, when the Mekong flushes the paddy fields, the cà na trees bear their first fruits. What could be better than rowing a canoe downstream, then tying it to a cà na trunk base by the riverbank to cast your fishing net, and while waiting, dip a bursting green ripen fruit into chilipepper salt to soak your soul with its wild and clean sweetness?
The first cà na‘s I’ve had are bright yellow with cracked skin, as big as a big green grape, resembling petrified dinosaur eggs, sold in glass jar among the ô mai and the salted plums.
The first nibble must be executed with caution. It’s firm and sound, with one big hard seed. No wonder the folks at home call the American football the cà na ball: they look and feel the same, only smaller. The flesh is dense like an old coconut’s meat, sour like lemon leaves, yet sweet like licorice blended with a dash of sea salt. How they’re made is a mystery to me.
Address: Vua Khô Bò & Ô Mai
2549 S King Rd #A-B
San Jose, CA 95121
(408) 531-8845
Also from here, also fruitilicious:
1. banana tootsie roll
2. ô mai (spiced fruit ball)
Other informative links on the Chinese olives:
– a list of different cultivars in China
– Autumn olive
This post is submitted to Delicious Vietnam #11, March edition, hosted by The Culinary Chronicles. I’ll head to her blog for more yummy posts on Vietnamese food this month, and many thanks to the Ravenous Couple and Anh for creating this event!
Great post. I am facing a couple of these problems.
1I like this post, enjoyed this one regards for posting.
2I truly love your website.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you make this site yourself?
3Please reply back as I’m trying to create my own personal blog and want to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called.
Thank you!
We’re a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.
4Thanks for every other magnificent post. The place else may just anyone get that type of information in such a perfect way of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m on the search for such information.
5Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all people you really realize what you are talking approximately! Bookmarked. Please additionally consult with my site =). We could have a link change contract among us!
6This paragraph will assist the internet users for building up new webpage or even a
7weblog from start to end.
I truly enjoy looking at on this internet site, it holds good posts. “Something unpredictable but in the end it’s right, I hope you have the time of your life.” by Greenday.
8Thank you for every other wonderful article. The place else could anybody get that kind of information in such an ideal approach of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m on the search for such information.
9I really like your writing style, good information, thank you for posting :D. “The superfluous is very necessary.” by Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire.
10I’m still learning from you, as I’m making my way to the top as well. I definitely enjoy reading all that is written on your site.Keep the information coming. I enjoyed it!
11An impressive share, I just given this onto a colleague who was doing a little analysis on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I found it for him.. smile. So let me reword that: Thnx for the treat! But yeah Thnkx for spending the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you become expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is highly helpful for me. Big thumb up for this blog post!
12Very great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wished to say that I have really loved browsing your weblog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write once more very soon!
13Awsome site! I am loving it!! Will come back again. I am taking your feeds also
14I am impressed with this site, rattling I am a fan.
15certainly like your web site however you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very troublesome to inform the truth on the other hand I will surely come back again.
16You are a very smart person!
17I just could not depart your site prior to suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the standard info a person provide for your visitors? Is going to be back often in order to check up on new posts
18Thank you, I have just been looking for information about this topic for ages and yours is the best I have discovered so far. But, what about the conclusion? Are you sure about the source?
19You are my inhalation, I own few blogs and often run out from to post .
20I am often to blogging and i really appreciate your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information.
21Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any helpful hints for beginner blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.
22I respect your piece of work, regards for all the good articles.
23An interesting discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but generally people are not enough to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
24I don’t even understand how I stopped up right here, however I thought this publish was great. I don’t know who you’re however definitely you are going to a famous blogger in the event you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
25Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is an extremely well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.
26You have brought up a very great details, regards for the post.
27It’s in point of fact a great and helpful piece of info. I am satisfied that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
28I’m impressed, I have to say. Actually not often do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you could have hit the nail on the head. Your concept is outstanding; the problem is one thing that not sufficient people are talking intelligently about. I am very comfortable that I stumbled across this in my seek for one thing regarding this.
29