• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Course
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Ingredient
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Subscribe
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Subscribe
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • How-tos
    • Ingredients
    • Tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Ingredients Kitchen

Butterfly pea flowers

Published: 04.12.2020 » Last updated: 01.20.2023

Steep to make a blue herbal brew that can be drank like tea or use to make Malaysian nasi kerabu. The scientific name Clitoria ternatea.

Butterfly pea flower

January, 2020. My daughter, Alex, and I were buying tea in Chiang Mai and, after she had chosen a bag of jasmine oolong and a bag of Thai tea, we decided to try some of the non-tea herbals brews. A bag of butterfly pea flowers was among them.

We didn’t waste time trying it. If it was good, we intended to buy more. We opened the pack of butterfly pea flowers, threw some into cups and poured in hot water.

There was no distinctive taste nor aroma. My best description would be “weak tea”. Very weak tea, in fact. Alex, on the other hand, said it reminded her of furikake. It was a curiosity for us. But because we were unable to find anything particularly memorable with the flavor and aroma, we didn’t buy more.

Dried herbs, flowers and spices for sale in Chiang Mai

It wasn’t until two months later as we entered the third week of the don’t-leave-house-because-there’s-a-nasty-bug-out-there that I thought about the herbal brews we bought in Chiang Mai.

Butterfly pea is Clitoria ternatea

Clitoria is a genus, there are several species all of which have similar-looking flowers. Apparently, the naming of the genus was a subject of controversy for a century. Long and short story, the name has survived.

Butterfly pea plant with flowers
Butterfly pea growing in a neighbor’s garden, circa 2008. We grow it in our own garden today.

Surely the butterfly pea flower look more like a butterfly with spread wings than a woman’s genitalia?

In case you’re wondering — it was a male, German-born botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius, who was responsible for the name. That was back in 1678 when he described the first species he encountered in Indonesia as Flos clitoridis ternatensibus.

Misogynistic?

Yes, I felt it was.

So, I Googled “plant named after male genitalia” just for, well… balance. I came up with Amorphophallus titanum which translates to “gigantic penis”. The name was coined by one W.H. Hodge. Men and their fantasies, right?

Now, this Amorphophallus titanum grows in the wild only in Sumatra, Indonesia where it is known as bunga bangkai. Bunga is flower; bangkai is corpse. Reason for the name? It smells like a rotting corpse. I bet Mr. W.H. Hodge did not take the odious odor of the flower into the equation when he did his naming. Serves him right.

Connie Veneracion

Lawyer by education. Journalist by accident. Writer by passion. Photographer by necessity. Good food, coffee and wine lover forever. Read more about me and Umami Days. Find me on Flipboard, Substack and Pinterest.

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #41 My love-hate affair with shrimps
    09.25.2023
    After McDonald’s Japan announced the introduction of shrimp nuggets in its menu, I made my home version. Plus, I have an invitation for you. Make sure you read this all the way to the end.
More Ingredients, Kitchen
Blanched Chinese broccoli in iced water

What is blanching and how is it different from parboiling?

Fried dumplings on plate with dipping sauce

Does dumpling / spring roll meat filling have to raw before wrapping?

White, yellow and purple cauliflower

Cauliflower: kinds, colors and recipes

Jute leaves (saluyot)

Jute leaves (saluyot): Cleopatra’s anti-aging secret?

Asian noodle stir fry

Asian noodles shopping guide

Mortar and pestle made of unpolished granite

Mortar and pestle for the home kitchen

Olives

Green and black olives: what’s the difference?

Beef on chopping board

How to tenderize meat for stir fries

Baby pineapple

How to skin and cut pineapple without waste

Napa cabbage and bok choy

How to cook Chinese cabbage

Annatto (achiote) pods and seeds

How annatto (achiote) is used in cooking

A stack of pancakes, made from scratch, topped with butter and drizzled with honey

Make perfect fluffy pancakes from scratch

Sidebar

Green beans tempura
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact

No AI is used in the creation of Umami Days content · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved