Asam Jawa, or tamarind as it is known in English, is a rather curious plant, with origins dated as far as 400 BC.

The Arabs describe it as the "date of India", thanks to the fact that it is one of the most widespread trees in the Indian subcontinent. Back in the ancient days of the Egyptians and Greeks, it was widely used in cooking and for medicinal purposes. In fact, it was also used as a binding medium for watercolour paints used in paintings and manuscript illustrations.

History suggests that the tamarind finds its origins in Africa, but today, it is used widely in South Asia. In fact, most of the food that we taste in our part of the world owes its taste to this highly resourceful plant.

While the entire tamarind tree is known to be a plant with a rich variety of uses, the tamarind fruit it arguably the most valuable part of the tree. Encased within a brown pod of the tree, a soft-brown pulp with hard-coated black seeds awaits, and it is this pulp that is full of richness and flavour, known in Malay as the Asam Jawa.