Holy Fruit of Mt Tianshan
6 min readWalking in the market of featured products in Xin jiang, you will find all kinds of dried fruits, among which badam accounts for the largest amount. Those baskets of different sizes are filled with it which is in golden color. For Xinjiang, badam is like the name card of this region, widely known by the people in Xinjiang and people at home and abroad. It is also like a signature dish in restaurants, so each person coming to Xin jiang can’t help eating it.
Xinjiang’s badam was introduced from the ancient Persia and planted since the Tang Dynasty, preserving a history of over 1,300 years. Local badam is better than its original kind, containing more oil and sugar than the foreign badams, as well as taste better and sweeter than foreign ones which is because of the exceptional natural conditions such as large circadian temperature disparity, long sunshine duration and drought. To conform to this environment, the plants accumulate lots of sugar and oil in their body, thus the melons and fruits are exceptionally tasty and sweet. We always see a kind of simple quaint crescent pattern on knife handles, caps and carpets in the daily life of the Uygur people, which is from the beloved luxury specialty-Badam. The people of Xin jiang love badam to the bone, as if it has been connected to their soul and thinking and can’t be separated.
The people of Xinjiang are intelligent. The same product can be actually made into different flavors. What is more important, the flavor of each kind of badam is loved to the bone by the people. Badam of Xinjiang has many different varieties which is about 30-40 varieties, divided into 5 families such as respectively soft shell sweet almond series, sweet almond series, thick shell sweet almond series, bitter almond series and peach almond series. The best varieties of the first two families are ultra-thin shell badam and soft shell badam, that is,”pistor kakazi badam”and “kakazi badam”in the Uygur language, are the highest grade among the badams. It is beyond question that ultra-thin shell badam has thin shell and big and fleshy fruit which is convenient for eating and with crispy taste.
Only by pinching with fingers, the big fruit will come out. On the contrary, thick shell badam has relatively thick shell which is hard to be taken off, so sometimes it is shelled with light small tools. Of course, there is also an advantage of the thick shell variety, that is, the nutritious preservation is better. For bitter badam,I advise friends with common taste not to try it, because it is the favorite for only a few people indeed. The rest badam all has its own merits, which is the reason why each kind of badam enjoys such popularity in Xinjiang.
If you want to see and eat authentic badam, you had better pay a visit to”Donghuan Market”and “Beiyuanchun”in Urumqi. The badam there preserves original flavor without any affectation. There, you will see all varieties directly. When you walk along the street, each peddler is full of warmth and invites you to try. They are not simply to sell you something, but more of pride from their heart, because the badam in the baskets are like their hope, shining in gold.
Badam is mainly produced in Shufu, Yengisar, Shache, Karghalik and other counties in the oases in Kashgar in the south of Mt. Tianshan, which features peculiar sweetness andaroma. It is said that the nutrition of badam is several times of beef, so the people of Xin jiang regard it as tonic. Whenever badam is ripe in the orchard, the people will run over to buy and to pick it. If divided by flavor, badam can be separated into original taste, sweetness, garlic flavor, spiced flavor and spiced salt flavor, in total 5 categories. Among them, spiced salt badam takes the salt as the main ingredient, which is pickled with all kinds of spices and then baked dry. Its kernel contains salt and spice, which is not absolutely salty but with the mixed flavor of spiced salt and slight sugar, so it presents strong aftertaste, and people want to try more when starting to eat. Badam of the original taste is hard, like almond, and the kernel inside of it is sweet and crispy, but it is hard to eat. Therefore, spiced salt thin shell badam is the favorite of the people, which is called”kakazi badam”by the Uygur people and “kakazi”means “thin”in the Uygur language.
Before eating it, only by pinching it with fingers lightly, plump and sweet badam comes out, thus it is called”paper badam”. Sweet badam is to make badam into jam and then eat, which, giving good performance in medicine, can be used for adjuvant therapy for renal deficiency patients, because it is delicious without any toxic and side effects, popular with the patients for long-time consuming.
Badam holds lots of applications in medicine for its nutritious values such as clearing lung, relieving hunger, expelling cold, dispelling wind and checking diarrhea and other properties, which is normally used to relieve cough and eliminate phlegm as a good remedy for tracheitis, asthma, gastroenteritis and acid-base poisoning and other diseases. In the Uygur medicine in Kashgar,60% of the medicine contains such ingredients. The folk doctors use it in the treatment of high blood pressure, neurasthenia, skin allergy, tracheitis,rickets and other diseases. The occurrence of myopia of the Uygur people is lower than that of the Han people, which is connected with some good habits of livelihood and diet of the people. Sweet badam is the food frequently eaten by the Uygur people. To certain extent, sweet badam takes effect on improving the eyesight during long-time eating.
Certain experiments prove that the nutritious value of badam is 6 times higher than that of beef with the same weight. This is because its kernel contains vegetable oil overa half of it, protein about 30% and a small amount of vitamin A,B1 and B2, digestive enzyme, amygdalin enzyme and calcium as well as 18 trace elements such as iron and cobalt. The small almond contains huge energy and nutritious value, which is not only touted by the domestic people, but also accepted by the foreign friends. Some countries make almond milk, badam tonic wine and sedatives which is made of bitter almond. Some hospitals in the U.S. often use badam powder for the treatment of children diabetes and epilepsia and other symptoms with remarkable results; in recent years, it has been made into bitter badam globulin hydrochloride medicine, which is dedicated to the treatment of epidemic virus cold. The dean of biology department of Loyola University in Chicago,U.S., Harold W.
Manner pointed out in his results report of the research in badam that bitter badam can be used in treatment of cancer.
Of course, the attractions of badam are not simply because of its flavor and medical value, and its high healthcare functions make it unquestionable the best among the specialties of Xinjiang. It is proved by scientific research that badam can protect the skin,
because it is healthy food rich in vitamin E and flavonoid antioxidants. One handful of badam can provide 7.3 milligram vitamin E, while vitamin E can resist radicals effectively; taking an effect of moisturizing and protecting the skin and slowing down the aging process and it is also good for the heart. The unsaturated fatty acid up to 70% contained in badam helps reduce”bad”cholesterol level. Eating badam can effectively lower the human cholesterol and triglyceride fatty acid content to reduce the hidden risks of heart attackoccurrence. Another significant function of badam is to maintain intestinal tract health. It is shown by relevant research results that badam has properties of prebiotics, which canimprove intestinal health and promote cacation by increasing beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract. If you want to keep fit, badam is also a good choice. Eating badam will cause an obvious satiety, and thus, help control intake of other high calorie food; and ther badam contain dietary fiber to lower fat absorptivity; therefore, it can control the body weight effectively. As a result, many women praise badam highly-this tonic nourishment of both beautifying and losing weight, who will dislike it anyway? Another function of badam is to maintain the blood sugar level. It is discovered by research that people eating badam for breakfast will have stronger satiety after breakfast and lunch, and their blood sugar concentration can be controlled effectively. This research can help prediabetic state patients correct their improper habits of eating too much and other bad dietary conducts, to lower the risks of disease development.
