Pani Phol

I've seen these incredibly odd-looking vegetable-like nuggets in all of the fruit markets recently. Sorry Mom, no pictures tonight, but let me describe them to you: they're irregularly-shaped, small, and greenish purple. On closer investigation they look like the head of a comic villian, with two spikes for ears, and a devillishly grinning face.

Tonight we asked Protima Didi what they are, and this is what she told us: They're actually fruits, called pani phol, or literally, "water fruit". To eat them, you peel off the greenish-purple skin and inside is a white flesh that you pop in your mouth. "They're quite good," she said.

So I got twenty rupees worth tonight, which ended up being a bag of about thirty of these little buggers. On the walk back home I peeled one and ate it. It was...not thrilling. In fact, I compared it in my mind to a slightly sweet water chestnut.

Which in fact, upon Wikipedia investigation, it is--a raw water chestnut. So, now we've got a whole bagful of these villianous-looking fruits to eat. Um, yay.