Jungle Notes.
Field notes from the tropics.
A growing reference for the ingredients we work with — kithul, young jackfruit, cobra chilli, palm sugars — and the techniques to use them. Written for cooks who want to know what they’re cooking with, not just how to cook it.
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The Glossary
Tropical pantry, explained.
Kithul
Sri Lanka
Smoky palm sugar trapped from the kithul palm flower.
Young Jackfruit
Sri Lanka
The unripe fruit that cooks like ground meat. Mild, absorbent, high in fibre.
Cobra Chilli
Sri Lanka
Fruity scotch-bonnet-style chilli grown on Sri Lankan smallholdings.
Nutmeg
Indonesia
Volcanic-soil nutmeg from the Banda Islands. Warm, sweet, faintly piney
Aren Palm
Indonesia
Indonesian palm sugar with deep caramel notes. Sister to kithul.
Kelapa Palm
Indonesia
Lighter coconut-palm syrup. Floral. The gateway palm sugar.
Ash Plantain
Sri Lanka
Starchy green plantain — closer to potato than banana. A Sri Lankan kitchen staple.
Moringa
Sri Lanka
The leaf with more iron than spinach. Mild, grassy, cooks like kale.
Pineapple
Malaysia
MD2 and Sarawak varieties — sweet, juicy, peak-season-only sourcing.
Coconut
Sri Lanka
Fresh-scraped, never powdered. The base note of Sri Lankan home cooking.
Lasia
Sri Lanka
Spiny tropical tuber. Crunchy, mild, used in curries. Rare outside South Asia.
Finger Millet
Sri Lanka
High-iron, gluten-free grain. Nutty, earthy. Centuries old, suddenly trendy.
How-to Guides
