if you are an avid reader of this blog (cough cough yeah right!), you may have read this post in 2007. after one year and three months of ignorance, i have finally found what the evil nut is... it's Trapa bicornis, or in layman term - Devil pod or bat nut or goat head or bull nut or buffalo nut. this 'nut' is the seed pod of an aquatic Asian plant. apparently the raw nut contains toxins which must be destroyed via boiling. i've tasted it, but did not find it delicious or repulsive... just tasteless.
it seems this nut was eaten as food in Neolithic Britain, although its centre of origin is China. nowadays, the nut can be found growing as a weed in slow-moving water systems, such as in the Caspian, India and Sri Lanka.
so far, i've only seen this nut less than 5 times in my life (i think it's pretty hard to get hold of). and usually they are served during mooncake festival as accompaniment to sipping brewed tea and partaking slices of lotus mooncakes under the full moon.
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