The Dangers of Cashews – Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The Dangers of Cashews
Yogyakarta, Indonesia

I have a strict policy with food whilst travelling: I will try anything once. However, a recent incident with a cashew has influenced me into amending this rule. All I can hope for is that my follies serve as a warning to you all.

A few moons past, I was visiting the family of a friend, Dr. Okie, in Solo. This city is located in the heart of Central Java, Indonesia. Following strict Javanese custom, my hosts quickly presented me with tea and snacks. I was nibbling on the cashews when they asked me if I had ever seen them before. I explained that we have them too, but they are expensive and they have to be imported. They were horrified when I revealed the cost of cashews in North America. As a gift, they sent me home with a small container of the delectable nuts.

The following week, Dr. Okie told me that his mother had sent a bag of cashews and the fruit of the cashew for me to enjoy. When I decided the fruit was ripe (based on nothing at all….) I peeled some and ate it up. There is only one word that accurately describes this fruit: edible. But that is not my tip of the day – no, my message is far more important.

Dr. Okie told me that the actual nut could be found in the nub at the top of the fruit. After a small operation involving a utility knife, I reached the treasured cashew. He also suggested that the cashews are “better” when roasted, but I assumed this was just a suggestion. According to my try-anything-once diet, I popped the raw cashew in my mouth. You would do the same, right?

Never do that.

The nut really did not taste – but flavour is not the concern here.

A few seconds later, my lips felt like they were on fire. This was promptly followed by a lack of any feeling. Rather quite noticeable swelling and reddening were the next symptoms. I decided just to try to sleep for a bit and hope for the best. When I awoke three hours later, my lips remained gigantic, red, and burning. I tried to convince myself this was merely a temporary condition. As I was waking, I rubbed my eyes.

Do not do that either.

Now my eyes were burning. I ran to the bathroom, washed my hands, and tried to rescue my contacts from the inferno that had engulfed my sockets. Once I ripped those out, I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and a mere two hours later, I regained my vision. (Okay, so I really could only not open them for about a minute, but they watered for at least that long). Oh, yeah, and my lips were still numb. And swollen. And red. A few days later, I regained almost all of the feeling in my lips. However, where the cashew made contact, a blister presented itself and started to peel.

Could this all be from an innocent raw cashew?

I told my Indonesian language teacher, Bagus, about my little experiment. He looked at me with a bewildered expression (which I seem to get rather frequently around here). Apparently, this was a grave and dangerous approach to cashew consumption: They are poisonous when unroasted. The roasting burns off the gas. He had a friend once who took a raw cashew and drew a picture on his arm – for a tattoo!! “Bagus, does that mean that this little red mark on my lip is similar to a tattoo? As in permanent?” He did not know…might be.

Whatever you do, do not eat raw cashews. They must be roasted. Dr. Okie seriously misused the word “better” when describing the difference between raw and roasted nuts. My try-anything-once diet really might be the death of me. However, I do take solace in the fact that most people would do the same…wouldn’t they?

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