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Aroy Mak Mak

Toddy Palm Fruit

ลูกตาล

Luk tan: translucent, jelly-like seeds from the sugar palm, cool and lightly sweet.

Toddy Palm Fruit

The sugar palm, which gives Thailand its palm sugar, also gives this fruit. Young fruit (luk tan on) hold soft, translucent, jelly-like seeds that are cool and lightly sweet, much like the jelly of a young coconut. Phetchaburi province is famous for them.

Pronunciationlook taan
FlavourMild, cool and lightly sweet, like coconut jelly
SeasonMarch to June for young fruit
EatenIn syrup, fresh and in khanom tan cakes

How it is eaten

Young luk tan are peeled and eaten fresh, or served chilled in light syrup, often with shaved ice. The pulp of ripe fruit is mixed with rice flour and coconut to make khanom tan, small, fluffy, yellow steamed cakes with a sweet, fragrant flavour.

Buying it

Fresh luk tan are sold peeled, in bags, at markets in the dry season. Outside Thailand, look for tins labelled palm seed or attap seed in syrup in Asian grocers.

Opening a fresh fruit

A whole toddy palm fruit is round, dark purple-black and very hard. Vendors split the husk with a heavy knife to free the seeds inside, usually two or three per fruit. Each translucent seed is wrapped in a thin, pale brown skin that tastes slightly bitter, so it is peeled away before eating. The jelly should be soft and wobbly; older seeds become firm and less juicy.

More from the same palm

  • Nam tan sot: the fresh, sweet sap tapped from the flower stalks, sold chilled at Phetchaburi roadside stalls and boiled down to make palm sugar.
  • Khanom tan: the steamed cakes made from the fragrant pulp of ripe fruit.
  • Hua tan: the crunchy young flesh, which looks a little like bamboo shoot, sliced into curries such as kaeng khua hua tan, often with fish.
Cook’s tip

Drain tinned palm seeds and add them to a glass of iced coconut water. It is the closest thing to a Phetchaburi roadside treat.

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