{"id":106768,"date":"2020-09-18T16:56:05","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T23:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106768"},"modified":"2020-09-18T16:56:05","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T23:56:05","slug":"a-fruit-which-saved-sri-lankans-from-starvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/18\/a-fruit-which-saved-sri-lankans-from-starvation\/","title":{"rendered":"A fruit which saved Sri Lankans from starvation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Zinara Rathnayake\/BBC Courtesy NewsIn.Asia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

An amazing variety of dishes can be made from Jackfruit which is also the heaviest fruit in the world<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Colombo, September 18: My mother grew up in a house of eight people in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, 100km north-east of Colombo. During the island\u2019s severe droughts in the 1970s, most of her family\u2019s humble, home-cooked meals consisted of boiled jackfruit served in a clay pot with a handful of freshly grated coconut. This simple, carb-rich meal fused with natural fats fuelled enough energy for the farmer-family to toil day and night in the dry plains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Starbucks serves jackfruit in wraps, while Pizza Hut offers it as a topping. The London Evening Standard called jackfruit the new kimchi, kale and cauliflower all rolled into one\u201d. Pinterest named it the hottest food trend of 2017\u201d, and more recently, The Guardian declared it a vegan sensation\u201d thanks to its shredded meat texture.<\/ins><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for my mother, her memories of growing up are studded with her eldest sister\u2019s myriad jackfruit dishes. She\u2019s particularly fond of kiri kos, a creamy jackfruit curry cooked in coconut milk. For kiri kos, my aunt plucked unripe jackfruits. Decades later in the early 2000s, it was the same tree that pleased my jackfruit cravings as a child. My mother recalls the days where I sat side by side with her as she removed and discarded the sticky white sap \u2013 koholla, as she called it in Sinhala \u2013 from ripe jackfruit, gobbling up each yellow, egg-like pod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This humble fruit has been revered by Sri Lankans, as it has repeatedly saved the island from starvation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved the strong smell of the ripe fruit. People in the West often describe it as stinky\u201d, but for me, other Sri Lankans and those living between many parts of India and the rainforests of Malaysia where the fruit naturally grows, this seasonal smell of ripe jackfruit brings immense joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit is the world\u2019s largest tree-borne fruit and it has a spiky skin that changes colour from green to yellow as it ripens. We use unripe jackfruit in our cooking and eat the ripe fruit raw, just as we eat a ripe mango or an apple. While the West is now touting it as an ethical meat alternative, for centuries, this humble fruit has been revered by Sri Lankans, as it has repeatedly saved the island from starvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit is the world\u2019s largest tree-borne fruit and mature trees produce 200 fruits each year (Credit: Utopia_88\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across Sri Lanka, the jackfruit tree is known as bath gasa (rice tree\u201d). Sri Lankans are rice eaters and pre-colonial Sri Lanka took pride in the country\u2019s vast reservoirs and irrigation canals that harnessed monsoon rains, suppling water for paddy cultivation. But when British forces occupied the island starting in 1815 and subsequently stripped farmers of their land, they made it difficult for islanders to grow rice and instead expanded plantation crops such as tea, rubber and cinnamon for their export gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sri Lankan jackfruit curry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1915, a member of Sri Lanka\u2019s independence movement named Arthur V Dias, who had been sentenced to death by the British for his perceived role in an uprising, was freed from prison. Upon his release, Dias dedicated himself to helping Sri Lankans fight British rule and he realised that islanders would soon face food shortages as rice cultivation continued to decline. During his independence movement marches in Sri Lanka\u2019s central highlands, he also saw the destruction of the island\u2019s native jackfruit trees. When he learnt about the harrowing food shortages caused by World War One across Europe, Dias sought to establish food security and self-sufficiency throughout Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person can\u2019t build a tank for paddy cultivation, but Arthur V Dias realised he could plant jackfruit trees, which [would] be the same as rice and eradicate starvation in Sri Lanka,\u201d said Damith Amarasinghe, a history teacher at St Mary\u2019s Maha Viduhala in the town of Uswetakeiyawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dias came up with the ambitious goal of planting one million jackfruit trees across Sri Lanka. A planter by trade, Dias imported jackfruit seeds from Malaysia and gathered healthy seeds for germination. He visited villages to distribute seedlings and mailed seeds to far-flung corners in the country. Over time, Dias\u2019 campaign paved the way to many successful jackfruit plantations across the country and earned him the heroic nickname of Kos Mama, or Uncle Jack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit was also known as the \u2018starvation fruit\u2019 in Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Dias is considered a national hero, and like most Sri Lankan children, I first learned about Dias in a school textbook. His jackfruit campaign also helped establish food security in Sri Lanka during World War Two while nearby places such as Bengal and Vietnam experienced horrific famines in the 1940s. Amarasinghe explained that jackfruit was also known as the starvation fruit\u201d in Sri Lanka during the 1970s, fleetingly transferring me to my mother\u2019s memories of her childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, a combination of inflation, droughts and a food shortage pushed Sri Lanka to the verge of collapse. A 1974 New York Times article quotes Sri Lanka\u2019s then-prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike as saying the dire economic situation has almost squeezed the breath out of us \u2013 we are literally fighting to survive\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But thanks to Dias\u2019 campaign in the early 1900s, people had jackfruit growing in their backyards. Amarasinghe explained that those saplings \u2013 which had become tall, fruit-bearing trees long before the 1970s \u2013 are what got people through the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My grandmother hailed from a well-to-do family, but the government only allowed them to purchase 2kg of rice for a week. During these years, it\u2019s jackfruit that kept them fed,\u201d Amarasinghe told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit has birthed a host of flavourful delicacies, and we welcome every bit of it into our diverse cuisine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, Amarasinghe says that jackfruit also became a staple during Sri Lanka\u2019s months-long curfew to control Covid-19. During the initial weeks of the pandemic, many people in rural villages lost their incomes and it took weeks or even months for government welfare programmes to reach these remote hamlets. Without access to money or food, many villagers resorted to boiling jackfruit \u2013 just as my mother\u2019s family did in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But jackfruit isn\u2019t just a starvation fruit. The island\u2019s deep love and gratitude for jackfruit has birthed a host of flavourful delicacies, and we welcome every bit of it into our diverse cuisine. Tender baby jackfruit without seeds go into a flavourful curry known as polos ambula. The curry\u2019s labour-intensive process involves slow cooking the young fruit in a clay pot over an earthen fire for at least six hours. As the hours pass, the baby jackfruit slices simmer in a spice-infused coconut broth, soaking up the flavours of cloves, cardamom, dried tamarind and other aromats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kiri Kos curry, another jackfruit dish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankans incorporate jackfruit into a wide variety of traditional dishes (Credit: Nathan Mahendra)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ripe jackfruit pods are slimy and taste better with a sprinkle of salt. Seeds don\u2019t go to waste in our homes; we eat them boiled. When combined with a ground mix of pan-fried rice and shredded coconut, boiled seeds make for a dark curry called kos ata kalu pol maluwa. My mother loves seeds as a snack, smoking them over a charcoal fire. My favourite is my father\u2019s kos ata aggala, pan-roasted and ground jackfruit seeds blended with scraped coconut, sugar and a hint of pepper that are formed into balls for sublime taste and a subtle crunch. He makes them for evening tea when I\u2019m home as a token of his love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This jack-of-all-fruits\u2019 versatility runs beyond the kitchen. It\u2019s hard to think of another tree with so many uses,\u201d said Diwani Welitharage, a pharmacist who cooks with locally sourced ingredients in her spare time. Welitharage cites jackfruit trees\u2019 popularity as timber and the many uses of its leaves and flowers in Ayurvedic medicine to treat diabetes. Rich in carbs, jackfruit is also a good source of dietary fibre and vitamin C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ripe jackfruit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Welitharage uses jackfruit flour in muffins and cakes, and fries sliced jackfruit pods into chips laden with sugar. Similarly, many Hela Bojun restaurants \u2013 an initiative by the Ministry of Agriculture allowing women to cook traditional Sri Lankan cuisine and earn a living \u2013 prepare kos kottu. Kottu, a popular street food and hangover cure, is a greasy mix of leftover flatbread, sliced vegetables, eggs and meat. The female-run Hela Bojun stalls dish up a healthier vegan kottu using boiled jackfruit pods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit is often fried and made into crunchy chips as a snack (Credit: Credit: santhosh_varghese\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackfruit is often fried and made into crunchy chips as a snack (Credit: santhosh_varghese\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though jackfruit is traditionally cooked at home, this humble fruit is increasingly found in many upscale restaurants across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day we had additional baby jackfruit, so I thought of preparing cutlets [a croquette-like snack] with it for guests who are vegetarian or vegan,\u201d said chef Wasantha Ranasinghe at Upali\u2019s by Nawaloka, a popular restaurant in Colombo that serves authentic local dishes. His tender jackfruit cutlets, served with a homemade spicy chilli sauce, soon became a hit among the epicureans frequenting the restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curious to see how jackfruit fares at hipster cafes, I visited the chic Colombo restaurant Cafe Kumbuk, which plates tacos with fried baby jackfruit alongside mango salsa and guacamole. Living in Sri Lanka, I realised jackfruit is such a widely available, versatile fruit that can be cooked and enjoyed in so many ways,\u201d said cafe founder Shana Dandeniya, who returned to Sri Lanka a few years ago after growing up in the UK. To me, it\u2019s one of the greatest local superfoods we have access to, and we should champion it more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is particularly fond of the pulled pork-like texture in cooked jackfruit and has plans to reintroduce a pulled jackfruit burger on the cafe\u2019s menu following customer requests. It\u2019s great when slow-cooked and pulled; I think it\u2019s even better than pulled pork.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Zinara Rathnayake\/BBC Courtesy NewsIn.Asia An amazing variety of dishes can be made from Jackfruit which is also the heaviest fruit in the world Colombo, September 18: My mother grew up in a house of eight people in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, 100km north-east of Colombo. During the island\u2019s severe droughts in the 1970s, most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}