Lablab -Bataw – Parda – Hyacinth bean (Dolichos Lablab) is one of my favorite vegetables. I like to cook it with pork and shrimp with “sotanghon” or cellophane noodles. I don’t have it in my garden now but when I did, it grew like crazy. It is a vine and needs trellis or fence to…
Ginger – luya (Zingiber) is a root vegetable used as a spice. It is a perennial plant and develop flowers but this ginger is different from the ornamental gingers that bears pink and red flowers. I like to have ginger in my garden for my cooking needs. I even use the leaves for steaming fish…
Taro -gabi (Colocasia Esculenta) is the most widely cultivated among root vegetables. It is the Hawaiian’s staple food and they call it “kalo”. Taro or “kalo” has a more deep connection with the Hawaiians. They preferred taro over sweet potato although taro required more time and labor to grow. They cook the taro and pound…
Cassava -Manihot Esculenta – is also called manioc, tapioca or Brazilian arrowroot. The Spanish call it “yucca”. We call it “kamoteng kahoy” in the Philippines. It literally means sweet potato from a tree since cassava grows as a woody shrub and the cassava forms as roots of the plant unlike the sweet potato that grows…
Star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito) is a fruit that is sweet and juicy but has that latex feel in your mouth. I remember when I was young, our mouths will be dusty after eating this fruit because the dirt clings into this glue like substance that is in the skin of the fruits. In the Philippines,…
Papaya (Carica) can be eaten as a fruit or vegetable. If you wait till papaya turns yellow then it can be eaten as a fruit. It is smooth and sweet and have this enzyme papain which is good for digestive functions in your body. The green ones on the other hand can be prepared as…