Thailand’s Mystery Vegetable time: สะตอ

Mr Landlord squinted and scrutinised the tree, doing his recce. It’s a whopper, a beaut, a grand old, gorgeous old tree, at least ten metres tall, fertile and famous in these parts.

“We come, tomorrow, take, OK?” He speaks more English than I speak Thai, thank goodness.

What he means is they’re harvesting Sato, the pretty long green twisted pods, filled with fat little beans, that smell terrible but when cooked are nice in curries, I’m told. I’m no expert. But this tree is right next to my balcony, and is heaving with them. Soon they’ll be on sale in the street markets, the latest thing in season.

Mr Landlord, the Mountain-Man Who Fears Nothing

He returned bearing a 3-metre ladder, and 5-metre bamboo pole with a nasty thick knife tied to the end in a T-shape. Shedding all footwear, he eventually worked his way up to perhaps 5-6 metres, reaching out to laden branches, tugging here and slashing there, while clusters fell to earth.

Waiting below were his wife, a neighbour and a big basket. Things were raining down all over.

Particular trees – Mr and Mrs Landlords’, specifically – are known for the best favour. They’ve been the best sellers here for a long time. That’s amongst locals. On the other hand, it’s seldom served to white folks, since it so seldom gets good reviews. In over ten years, for example, I’ve never seen it on any menu written in English. I don’t think they mind not sharing it. I think they sort of like keeping a few secret edibles to themselves.

Unfortunately for me, I have sworn to try new foods. I was assured they don’t need cooking, so I tried some – once they were peeled. Raw, they are crunchy and refreshingly crisp like fresh mange-tout. They’re about the size of a broad bean or a fat almond. They’re a bit bitter, a bit lemony, and afterwards your mouth burns pleasantly like you’ve had a crunch of chili.

Stink Beans, Bitter Beans, Twisted Clusters

thailand-vegetable-stink bean-sato I was also warned that some people, as with some kinds of asparagus, can have very stinky pee the next day. I’ll let you know. In fact, it is popularly called Stink Bean, or sometimes Bitter Bean, or my favourite nickname, the Twisted Cluster Bean. If you insist on being formal, you may call it Parkia speciose.