Bitter bean (Parkia speciosa), also called twisted cluster bean, sator bean, stink bean, or petai, is a tree-harvested bean used across southeast Asia. The pods bear long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, similar to, but stronger than that of the shiitake mushroom, due to sulfur-containing compounds also found in shiitake, truffles and cabbage.
The vegetable is known as petai, or pete in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
When young, the pods are flat because the seeds have not yet developed, and they hang like a bunch of slightly twisted ribbons, pale green, almost translucent. At this stage they may be eaten raw, fried or pickled. Young tender pods with undeveloped beans can be used whole in stir-fried dishes.