Pala

Myristica fragrans. The nutmeg probably originated in eastern Indonesia, but it was carried westward as soon as trade of any sort got going and it had apparently reached Europe by about AD 600. Burkill gives, as he does for many other fruits and spices, a fascinating review of its commercial history, and a pretty bloody story it is. Indonesia has paid heavily, over the centuries, for the richness of her spice islands. Ironically, we do not value nutmegs for cooking as highly as Arabs and Europeans seem to; for us, their medicinal uses are more important. Among other effects, they are alleged to be aphrodisiac, though I suspect this might be said of most foods. We use nutmeg occasionally in cooking, and we also make a very agreeable kind of candied sweetmeat, with a gingery taste, from the flesh that surrounds the nutmeg itself and the red ‘cage’ of mace. Burkill says that this manisan pala used to be exported to Europe; I wish it still was.