Dry-Season Treat · Palmyrah Fruit Sweets
Panagkaai
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For the people of Jaffna the palmyrah has traditionally been one of the most-used trees in daily life, with even the short-lived ripe fruit pulp dried into a chewy toffee sheet that keeps for months.
Ripe, orange palmyrah fruit pulp is sweetened with palm jaggery and either shallow-fried into small cakes (panangkai paniyaram) or spread thin and sun-dried into a leathery sweet called thal pinatu. Vendors sell both from carts and market stalls across the Jaffna peninsula during the fruiting season.
Why it's made this way: The palmyrah palm defines Jaffna's dry, sandy landscape, and generations of Tamil households have turned every part of the tree into food, compressing its brief fruiting season into a sweet that lasts.
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