Pulparindo

[rgruby]

For those who don't know, pulparindo is a Mexican candy made from tamarind, and flavoured with chiles, salt and lime. It's a bit larger (in all dimensions) than the stick of gum you used to get if you bought baseball cards.

The first time I tried Pulparindo I thought it was disgusting. A candy with tamarind? And chile? And lime?? (Many of the indigenous candies share these ingredients). But it grew on me, and now I find myself actually craving it once in a while, and seeking it out at some of the Latin places in town.

Is there anyone else out there who has succumbed to the charms of Pulparindo?

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[sandra]

Yes yes yes!!!

Outside my school in Mexico they used to sell a "homemade" version of it, a big blob of tamarindo wrapped in cling film - it had the seeds and everthing in it, we used to have to buy it through the fence, and it tasted sooo much better than the packaged stuff...

You also get it on the beaches in the same cling film packaging and then you pick out which is the biggest one and dig away with your fingers and spit out the seeds... Well you get it anywhere on the streets, really...

Sometimes you can have different flavours - tamarindo de dulce (sugar), tamarindo de sal, tamarindo de chile, which is the one you are referring to...

I have had people bring me the packaged stuff, but that is not so often anymore, and I cannot find it anywhere in London...

I am now tempted to go and get some tamarind pulp and try to duplicate it at home....

If you like this, have you tried Pico? a little packet of salt, sugar lime (citric acid) and chile powder - you just open a corner and pour it into your mouth... yum...

[rgruby]

If you like this, have you tried Pico? a little packet of salt, sugar lime (citric acid) and chile powder - you just open a corner and pour it into your mouth... yum...

Here in Toronto, I can find some Lucas powders which sound similar. I put them on popcorn occasionally.

No-one lse in the whole egullet family like Pulparindo?

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[ExtraMSG]

I don't think I've had Pulparindo, though I have had several tamarind candies. There are some *nasty* Asian tamarind candies.

My favorite Mexican candies are the various suckers that you dip in chile/lime/salt. I like mango. It's wicked on the first couple licks and you'll suffer a new kind of brain freeze if you get the sucker all wet, put it back in the dipping tube and shake it up, and then stuff it back in your mouth.

[Scott -- DFW]

I picked up a few different brands of tamarind pulp sticks, last time I was in Nuevo Laredo. My wife doesn't understand the appeal. That, happily, leaves more for me.

Scott

[bjcohan]

I love the things. Especially the ones in yellow cellophane that are rolled up like little flautas... It's the only sweet that I can leave around with the assurance that nobody else is going to filch it...

Barb

[Jason Perlow]

Some Mexican Candy Found to Contain Lead

An FDA statement said candies containing chili powder and tamarind were at risk for lead contamination.

Examples of chili-containing products included lollipops coated with chili and powdery mixtures of salt, lemon flavor and chili seasoning, sold as a snack item.

The FDA said candies containing the tamarind fruit, a popular Mexican item, could become contaminated with lead if sold in poorly made glazed ceramic vessels that release lead.

[sandra]

I would think lead is the least of the problems!

[ExtraMSG]

I like a lot of Mexican candies more than most people, but I picked up some Pulparindo recently and can't get into it. I like Tamarind, even rather unsweetened. I just don't like these that much.

[Yajna Patni]

I love them. I got them in big huge balls being sold outside the anothropology museum.

I have had similar in Thailand, but the balls are smaller, and contain seeds.

[fiftydollars]

I grew up on Mexican candy and I am a huge fan of the tamarind varieties.

But I've slowed my consumption because, Jason is right, the stuff has a good deal of lead in it.

The problem is that these confections are made in Mexico City, which has quite a problem with pollution caused, in part, by the leaded gasoline still used in Mexico.

[esperanza]

Twenty-five years ago or so there was a locally made sucker (paleta) made in Tijuana that I was addicted to. It was a ring of sweet, clear tamarind hard candy that surrounded a salted plum (saladita) coated with chile. The combination of sweet tamarind, sour/salty plum, and chile was heavenly. There was also a tamarind candy called Chacachaca--more like fruit leather. It's still made, and has also been found to be loaded with lead.

Now I love those little clay pots of tamarindo con chile, the ones that come with a tiny spoon to dig out the candy. I also often buy bulk sweetened tamarind pulp flavored with chile--spitting out the big black tamarind seeds is part of the fun of eating it.

I worry more about not having a steady supply of dulce de tamarindo than I do about lead.