The Subtly Essential Ingredient for Equatorial Chefs

“Your tangy earthbound pulp, a portal to biological brilliance.”

Tamarind is a key ingredient to the wheelhouse of many equatorial chefs. This week, Jessamine gathers in conversation Sam Fore of Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites in Lexington, Kentucky; Parnass Savang of Talat Market in Atlanta, Georgia; and Maricela Vega of Chico, also in Atlanta. All three chefs are combining their familiar homeland foods—from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Mexico—with their current surroundings in the American South. Despite using the same fruit, the different ways tamarind manifests in their unique recipes is a fascinating testament to their ingenuity.

Fruit Love Letters is part of Whetstone Radio Collective. Learn more about Fruit Love Letters here.

Find show notes here.