Each year in summer we expect the arrival of a delicacy in the market. It takes the heat off our head and cools down the whole body. In my childhood I had also relished on a sweet drink related to that delicacy. These two products are from our Palmyrah tree (Borassus flabellifer, Double palm, Lontar palm, 'Panai maram' in Tamil). The tree has multiple uses from making huts to making palm sugar and what else not? Its black fruits contain the soft, jelly-like delicacy (that I mentioned earlier here) called 'Nuongu' in Tamil (Ice-apple).
