Market Manila

Gabi, taro or callaloo leaves are poisonous if eaten raw. How anyone figured out how to eat them at all is a testament to desperation (hunger forces you to do things you would otherwise not do), persistence (keep testing out ways to eat it until you find a safe one), or serendipity (maybe some dude or dudette 6000 years ago accidentally threw it into a boiling pot of soup and it tasted good). Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is native to the Old World, but has become an important crop in the equatorial regions of the world. It is believed to have been cultivated as long as 6000 years ago and some sources assert that it originated in Southeast Asia or India. Raw taro leaves contain crystals of calcium oxalate which are poisonous, according to Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food. I read recently of a situation where the business class passengers on a transpacific flight of a major airline fell mysteriously ill… until an investigation uncovered that a meal served on board was presented on top of a raw cut taro leaf used as the garnish, YIKES! (I think this episode was narrated in a book by Jeffrey Steingarten) Photo at right shows fresh raw taro leaves hanging at the market…

Fresh taro leaves are large and rather soft. They are used extensively as a vegetable in Asian and Caribbean recipes. In the Philippines, the leaves are often dried in the sun first before cooking (plate of dried taro leaves at right). The outdoor drying helps to “kill off” the effects of the calcium oxalate. Most books recommend boiling the leaves extensively to eliminate the toxins. The most common taro leaf dish in the Philippines, and one of my favorites, is Laing (gabi leaves boiled in coconut milk with chillies, recipe to follow soon). Taro leaves are readily available in the provinces and are a nutritious source of vitamins and fiber. Today, pre-packaged dried gabi leaves are sold in markets all over the city and this makes the preparation of Laing even less cumbersome.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 9th, 2005 and is filed under General, Produce. You can be notified of this entry's comments by subscribing to its RSS 2.0 feed.