A cane made from the stem of a rattan palm.
I first encountered the word "cane" on a dirt road in Vientiane, Laos. Within walking distance of my family’s house stood a hut where Laotian farmers sold sugarcane.
Sugarcane was introduced to me as a marvelous earthly delight, distinctly but not uniquely Laotian, the name derived from its resemblance to a walking cane.
We ate sugarcane raw, discarding the mangled husks into angry looking piles. The cane was rich and viscous, its hard center a known hazard as we gnawed at the stalk. The sugary juices would get all over faces, and we would laugh.
When we moved back to Florida I remember looking for sugarcane at the numerous roadside fruitstands. I can’t remember why but I seem to remember being told that Florida sugarcane was either not edible, or simply inferior to Laotian sugarcane. I do not remember ever consuming Florida sugarcane. Accurately or not I tend to think of Florida sugarcane as something harvested for industrial processing and not direct consumption.
