My first culinary encounter with sembal dodde – which is what the buds of Bombax ceiba, or silk cotton tree, are called in Khadi Boli spoken in Saharanpur – was one of wonder. It is not so ...

Viewed at a distance, a tree covered in these red blooms can actually appear to be ablaze. It is referred to as “silk-cotton” because the flowers produce a capsule that, when ripe, contains white ...