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It’s the perfect time to eat mango, but it’s also the season for another local specialty: pobuzi, or Cordia dichotoma. Farming families used to prepare the caper-like fruit by hand to add flavor to stir-fry, steamed fish, or chicken soup. But there’s also a folk rumor that the enzymes in pobuzi can counteract the toxicity of mango, and should be eaten after enjoying the summer fruit.

A chicken stews in a clay pot over a charcoal fire as a chef packs the bird with pickled vegetables, instantly improving the aroma.

Mama Tsai
Farmer
Years ago, we made this pobuzi chicken soup over a charcoal fire, stewed for three hours. Everyone loved it.

Traditional pobuzi, or Cordia dichotoma, can be added to chicken soup, or fried up with eggs in an omelette.

Mama Tsai
Farmer
Pobuzi with steamed fish or egg is sweet and savory, perfect with rice.

But preparing pobuzi is far from easy. Farmers used to take advantage of good weather during the height of summer to harvest the fruit.

- It has to be washed about three times.
- So it needs to be washed thoroughly before using it?
- Right.

Harvested pobuzi needs to be washed a number of times before adding young ginger, soy paste, and other ingredients following a tried-and-true pickling recipe. They used to be pressed into solid blocks, but these days they’re jarred in brine.

- It’s a lot of work. We’ve been here since 5am.

Pobuzi shares a harvest season with mango. According to folk wisdom, it can even neutralize the toxicity of mango.

Mama Tsai
Farmer
Some people get itchy skin when they eat mango. But due to the excellent enzymes in pobuzi, it can relieve the itchiness. Nature’s bounty is incredible.

Whether this detoxification theory holds true is a matter of opinion, but the habit of eating pobuzi after mango has allowed this complex, old-school flavor to stand the test of time.

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