Kacang Bogor

Voandzeia subterranea. These are called Bambara Groundnuts by Herklots, and their home is Africa. Voandzeia resembles Arachis (kacang tanah, peanuts) in that its flowers dip towards the soil and the seeds or nuts develop underground; the pods and nuts themselves also look rather like peanuts, though there is usually only one nut to each pod. Voandzeia, however, produces no oil to speak of. These nuts are delicious to eat, especially when still unripe, either roasted or boiled, and eaten, as Herklots says, ‘out of hand’ or as a side-dish. When I lived in Bogor as a child, I used to buy a screw of banana-leaf with a few cents’ worth of nuts in it from one of the vendors who were to be found in any of the main streets. Indeed, you can buy these nuts anywhere in Indonesia, and the name ‘Bogor’ probably indicates only that the first trees were imported as specimens to the famous botanical gardens behind the Palace.