I noticed while shopping for nuts and seeds at my usual luxury supermarket that Asian nuts and seeds are much cheaper than the western staples (walnuts, pistachios, pumpkin etc). I bought roasted and salted melon seeds. In Chinatown in Bangkok I buy various weird nuts and seeds and dried fruits such as those red TCM berries.

Perhaps it is due to the concentrated protein and difficulties harvesting but nuts and seeds seem to always be expensive.

Where do you get your most bang for your buck? I presume it is with local and Asian ones. But I hesitate to buy from China due to pesticide residue.

Does Thailand produce any nuts and seeds that are very nutritious? In Cambodia I eat super cheap lotus seeds and in Indonesia obiquitous peanuts ('groundnuts'). My favourites are brazil and hazelnuts, but they are crazy expensive. I found some large cream coloured oily nut in Malaysia that has a curious taste. I LIKE bitter tasting nuts and seeds and use a few of the spicy papaya seeds in my smoothies.

My all-round favourite is sunflower seeds, but I can't keep buying tiny packets at 7-11 and buying raw, unroasted, unsalted au naturel sunflower seeds is a challenge. Asians seem to like them with all kinds of weird flavourings added. Hey, a local one I have discovered and are available cheap are CHESNUTS sold from street carts at THB10 for about six of them. However, they taste sweet compared to the very expensive fresh roasted ones in Chinatown. I think they are adding sugar. One new to me seed I did find locally is basil seeds which are almost as cheap as black sesame. Even FOODLAND has flax now - both golden and regular. I grind fresh nuts and seeds daily for my one smoothie meal (the other meal is cooked food). Chia is supposed to be very healthy but in Malaysia where I picked up a package it was VERY expensive.

Always on the lookout for concentrated protein and other nutrient-rich compact foods. The goal is to do so economically.

But a few hours later I found at a street market near the low-end hooker zone behind Royal Hotel in Banglampoo something that fits the bill...

Cheap? - 5/5, 10 baht for a heavy bag

Delicious? - 2/5, neither tasty nor disgusting, some are bland, some taste like chesnuts. Texture can be creamy. These ones are roasted and still warm.

Nutritious? - ?/5, Who knows?

Care to guess what they are? Hint: They are the seed of a large fruit. My guess is that they are a diehard upcountry food for starving farmers that with the right promotion could become a trendy snack food if research shows them to have some nutritionsl value.