So, Here I am having a drink with some friends when one, Jaeb, tells me she has a present for me. She excuses herself and 5 minutes later she come back and presents me with what I can only describe as a black bull’s head. I stare at it intently for a few minutes trying to figure out what it is and better yet what I am supposed to do with it when she takes it from me and starts beating it on the table.

After more than a few hard whacks the black bull’s head cracks open to reveal a hard white middle which is quickly scooped out and placed in my mouth. I used to be scared when such things happen but anymore I go with the flow and hope it doesn’t kill me. Luckily for me it didn’t kill me and tasted oddly familiar but for the life of me I couldn’t place the taste. The best I could get out of my Thai friends was the name, Krajab.

Once home I did a bit of research and found out that Krajab is a variety of water chestnut known as the horned water chestnut, Paniphal,  horned water Caltrop and Ling Jiao which literally means “bull’s horn” in Chinese. The horned water chestnut can come from two varieties of floating annual aquatic plants that are abundant in South East Asia. They are two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis. The latter of the two, Trapa bicornis, is the specie that resembles a black bulls head.

The horned water chestnut grows in slow moving water up to 5 meters deep anchoring itself into the muddy bottom with it’s fine roots that grow off of it’s long submerged stems. It then grows two sets of leaves; fine feather like leaves on the stem and floating leaves with a saw tooth edge that form a rosette on the surface of the water. In early summer a four petaled white flower grows at the center of the floating rosette and is pollinated which leads to the fruit being grown. The seeds of the horned water chestnut can remain viable for up to 12 years but usually germinate within 2 years.

The plant is spread in 2 ways; the rosette can detach itself from the stem and float to other areas or by the fruit attaching itself to wildlife and being transported away.

The horned water chestnut or caltrop, as it is also called, must be boiled before eating because, as with any water plant, it can be a carrier of fasciolopsiasis . At a certain stage of their life cycle larval flukes leave their water snail hosts and attach themselves to leaves or fruit of water plants forming a small cyst. This only affects the outer skin of the water caltrop but if not boiled the larvae can be transmitted to humans which could result in intestinal flukes, or as I like to call them, your own private dinner date.

You can tell if the horned water chestnuts have been properly boiled as the skin will be patchy and peeling in places. You definitely want to make sure they have been boiled as fasciolopsiasis does not look fun and there are over 10 million cases reported annually in South East Asia.

My friend Jaeb’s parents farm these little gems and sent her a large bag full which she kindly gave to me because she knows I’m always on the lookout for new food finds and this one fit the bill perfectly and literally fell right into my lap.

So, Here I am having a drink with some friends when one, Jaeb, tells me she has a present for me. She excuses herself and 5 minutes later she come back and presents me with what I can only describe as a black bull’s head. I stare at it intently for a few minutes trying to figure out what it is and better yet what I am supposed to do with it when she takes it from me and starts beating it on the table.

After more than a few hard whacks the black bull’s head cracks open to reveal a hard white middle which is quickly scooped out and placed in my mouth. I used to be scared when such things happen but anymore I go with the flow and hope it doesn’t kill me. Luckily for me it didn’t kill me and tasted oddly familiar but for the life of me I couldn’t place the taste. The best I could get out of my Thai friends was the name, Krajab.

Once home I did a bit of research and found out that Krajab is a variety of water chestnut known as the horned water chestnut, Paniphal,  horned water Caltrop and Ling Jiao which literally means “bull’s horn” in Chinese. The horned water chestnut can come from two varieties of floating annual aquatic plants that are abundant in South East Asia. They are two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis. The latter of the two, Trapa bicornis, is the specie that resembles a black bulls head.

The horned water chestnut grows in slow moving water up to 5 meters deep anchoring itself into the muddy bottom with it’s fine roots that grow off of it’s long submerged stems. It then grows two sets of leaves; fine feather like leaves on the stem and floating leaves with a saw tooth edge that form a rosette on the surface of the water. In early summer a four petaled white flower grows at the center of the floating rosette and is pollinated which leads to the fruit being grown. The seeds of the horned water chestnut can remain viable for up to 12 years but usually germinate within 2 years.

The plant is spread in 2 ways; the rosette can detach itself from the stem and float to other areas or by the fruit attaching itself to wildlife and being transported away.

The horned water chestnut or caltrop, as it is also called, must be boiled before eating because, as with any water plant, it can be a carrier of fasciolopsiasis . At a certain stage of their life cycle larval flukes leave their water snail hosts and attach themselves to leaves or fruit of water plants forming a small cyst. This only affects the outer skin of the water caltrop but if not boiled the larvae can be transmitted to humans which could result in intestinal flukes, or as I like to call them, your own private dinner date.

You can tell if the horned water chestnuts have been properly boiled as the skin will be patchy and peeling in places. You definitely want to make sure they have been boiled as fasciolopsiasis does not look fun and there are over 10 million cases reported annually in South East Asia.

My friend Jaeb’s parents farm these little gems and sent her a large bag full which she kindly gave to me because she knows I’m always on the lookout for new food finds and this one fit the bill perfectly and literally fell right into my lap.