Sampalok / Tamarind Candy from Thailand
Sampalok candy is an all-time personal favorite. I have written about this before 
and I would eat it in almost any of the forms it is made - little round balls with salt and sugar, free-form shapes around the seeds, seedless, with the webbing (not shell) still surrounding the entire ripe fruit, with chilies and without, etc. So when some friends sent over this pack of preserved sampalok from a recent trip of theirs to Thailand, I was thrilled. By the way, this is a nice side effect of writing about food for Marketmanila, friends now increasingly send over interesting or delicious things to eat…talk about making a diet impossible… I saved this package of sampaloc (is it c or k?) for a few days and took it out to the beach…
Then when that pang for something sweet/sour/salty hits between meals and you 
just want to have something in your mouth, you rip open the pack of sampalok and have a first hit. Yum. This pack was particularly good. Really, really good. Not overly sweet and lots of sampalok flavor. I placed half the pack in a little marble mortar and left it out for guests on a table…by the end of the day, most of the sampalok candy was gone…as people passed by the table with the sampaloc, they took one or two pieces then returned for more… If I had left the sampalok in the plastic bag in the kitchen, I am sure less of it would have been consumed that day…
The Thai version with the skins on is also a yummy variant, with a natural sweet-sour taste. Sampalok candy has been an adult treat for me. We weren’t allowed to eat them growing up, especially after my sister got typhoid fever eating poorly prepared ones in school.
November 15th, 2006Now I’m desperately DESPERATELY craving for thai sampaloc!!!! Almost equally good is the spicy thai mango preserves. A lot like the sampaloc, only using mango strips (duh!)
November 15th, 2006NOW you are talking about my favorite sampalocs from Thailand. Simply addicting!
Btw, can you recommend some of your fave sampaloc sellers/brand here?
November 15th, 2006That’s one of my favorites too! Question is, why can’t we develop and be known for the same product here in the Philippines?
November 15th, 2006speaking of Thai stuff,
If youu want addictive, try: durian chips.
It doesn’t stink, dont worry. very dry, very crisp. It’ll be a tiny step towards “curing” your aversion to durian. :)
November 15th, 2006i really really LOVE Thai Sampaloc! Any good quality sampaloc would do but my ultimate favorite is the thai kind!
November 15th, 2006Hi Market Man,
I’ve been a lurker of your site for about a few months now but I finally decided to comment because I also love sampalok and was actually born and raised in Sampaloc, Manila. Anyway, the sampaloc spelling, I believe, is Hispanic Tagalog. This is Tagalog that the Spaniards used when they tried to learn the Manila lingua franca but apparently was “Hispanized” with their alpahabet. So they would write ako as aco, ko as co, kayo as cayo, etc.
I really enjoy your site. Keep up the good work and the keep the “appetizing” posts coming Ü
November 16th, 2006Candied sampalok whether sweet or salty/tart is a good taste bud cleanser and enhancer. Once you put them out on a candy dish everyone keeps coming back for more, one bite is not enough. They also promote peristalsis movement. Once you have them it is guaranteed you will be heading to John for evacuation.
November 16th, 2006Sampaloc is one of those treats that takes me back to my childhood, just like Jojo candy. Some are overly sweet but my favorite is one with just enough sweet/salty/sour flavor. It doesn’t matter to me whether it is Philippine or Thai, basta sampaloc kakainin ko. When I was pregnant with my first child and craving sour foods, my friend from Manila happened to visit and, what do you know, her pasalubong was sampaloc!! She didn’t even have any idea that I was making lihi sour stuff. My hubby naman took one look at the sampaloc and said “ewwww” and didn’t even try it. His loss is my gain.
November 16th, 2006MM, try getting the Thai sampalok candy that’s sweet, sour, salty, and SPICY at the same time. I’m familiar with that brand of sampalok in your picture. That same store has the spicy variant. I’m based in Bangkok by the way and Thai sampalok is my staple pasalubong to friends and relatives.
November 16th, 2006I love Thai Sampaloc! A tenant/friend in the mall where I used to work would always bring me some whenever she would go to Bangkok. My supply stopped coming when she died. Now whenever I’d eat Thai sampaloc, it makes me sad as it reminds me of her. =(
November 16th, 2006almost all the sampaloc preserves from thailand i’ve tried here were in such hard, almost petrified states. its as if you weren’t eating sampaloc but spicy sweetened wood. why is that? if you get the chance to go to bkk i’d suggest you try another variant of sampaloc called “snow tamarind”. fresh sampaloc peeled then dusted with podered sugar. sold at the fantastic food market on the top floor of the Emporium.
November 16th, 2006Thai sampaloc is a little too sweet for me. I like my tamarind a little tart and sprinkled with sugar and salt.
November 16th, 2006‘missed the other regular folks here. Asan n sila?busy cguro….
November 16th, 2006Yum! Will go hunting for that brand here in the States. If a generous soul out there has a recipe for Thai samplalok candy, please share. :-) I also happen to love another version of Thai sampalok candy that comes in a tiny hard-plastic box. Each candy peice is really small–they look like dark-brown “Nerds.”
November 16th, 2006I’m here! Just lurking since I had to eat lunch at 5:00 pm. Don’t ask long story. But I had grilled pork chops (leftover from last night supper of grilled porkchops and oysters in a half shell). Today is chops with roasted eggplant salad with vinegar, garlic and chopped onions.
Going to the subject of sampaloc, I like the face-distorting sour ones. My mom loves the sweet ones. It assures her daily movement, so to speak. I just love sour food (miss green mangoes and bagoong sooooo much!)
November 16th, 2006LOVE is an understatement for how I feel about Thai Sampaloc. Even when I was younger (and supposedly less inclined to prefer spicy food), I have adored it. My first taste was when mom brought me a pack from her training in Bangkok, when I was about 9. Been hooked eversince.
I blogged about it last year: http://annethology-queen.blogspot.com/2006/03/sweet-sour-spicy-heaven.html#comments
November 17th, 2006Ngek. Last March lang pala. Sowee.. :O
November 17th, 2006–> I like my thai sampalok in a sweet-spicy flavor. I absolutely enjoy eating it!
November 17th, 2006what i really miss is the sampaloc sold in my old school canteen in high school, wrapped in orange cellophane paper, a strip of sweet sampaloc candy with webbing, with specks of coarse rock salt. i think i could eat about 10 of those in one sitting.
November 17th, 2006Salivary glands activated!
November 22nd, 2006In all my three pregnancies, I only craved for one thing - sampaloc, but to my chagrin, the Philippine-made tamarind sold in Asian stores here in the Bay Area were more sugary than sour. Eventually found my sampaloc-heaven at the Mexican stores that sell it at a quarter per ball (around the size of the ball we used to play with jack stones). And to borrow Dodie’s description, they are the ultimate “face-distorting” variety.
December 10th, 2006I forgot to add that these Mexican stores also sell the spicy variety, the same tamarind balls but rolled in some spicy powder. Chili, I presumed. I tried one once but my tongue just cannot take it. Could they be similar to the Thai Sampaloc?
December 11th, 2006