Friday 28 October 2016

Unusual Asian fruits, part 1

I'm obsessed with fruit.

I absolutely adore discovering new fruits to try, and when I'm on my travels, I always try and check out the local produce markets for unfamiliar fruits and veggies. Since I've been living in Singapore, I've managed to try quite a few new tastes and textures - have you tried any of these? Let me know what you thought in the comments.

Fresh jackfruit, peeled and de-seeded

Jackfruit

Other names: Trai mit (Vietnamese)

Appearance: The plants produce huge, green knobbly pods, similar in appearance to an oversized durian (but with much less pronounced spikes). Picture a mutant American football, that's grown to many times it's original size, developed soft green spikes, and is now plotting world domination.
Inside, you'll find bright yellow fruit segments, each containing a large white seed (the seeds are edible once cooked, but cause terrible flatulence, so I wouldn't bother if I were you). Easiest bought as pre-prepared segments.

Texture: Tender to the tooth, without being mushy or really soft. They can be firm and a little waxy if under-ripe. Texture wise, it feels like crossing a ripe apricot or peach with a grape (if that makes any sense at all).

Flavour and aroma: Imagine a really stinky fruit, but made by Jesus. The fruit when ripe has a distinctive, very sweet taste, reminiscent of fruit salad, and a strong, almost-floral fragrance which will linger in your home or hotel room for days.

Yummy rating: Yes, yes, yes!!!

For more information about this fruit, including cultivation and how to prepare a whole fruit, I recommended this page on CloveGarden.

Snake fruit

Other names: salak

Appearance: I hate to say it, but these look like snakeskin ballbags (sorry, mum!). The skin is thin and a little brittle, and easily breaks off, revealing firm off-white globes of crisp fresh, surrounding a large brown seed.

Texture: Most of the time these are fairly crisp, but you do occasionally get one that's not ripe or over-ripe, in which case it will be a bit chalky or squishy.

Flavour and aroma: Not a strong flavour or aroma, to be honest. A bit like an Asian pear, but not as peary. (I do realise how ridiculous these descriptions probably are, thanks). It's only a little sweet, but quite nice.

Yummy rating: Not bad. I could happily munch through a few of these.

Langsat

Appearance: Unpeeled, these look like longans on steroids. The fruits vary from one to two inches in diameter, with a matt skin. Inside, it looks like a citrus fruit, with translucent lobes of flesh that easily split apart from each other. The lobes often contain a small, soft seed which tastes very bitter, like the seeds in citrus. (Spit those puppies out).

Texture: Unlike citrus, the lobes aren't made of pulp but instead have a jelly-like texture, like those fruit jellies that appear in all the grocery shops for Christmas.
Flavour and aroma: Again, citrusy. Langsat taste almost exactly like a pomelo or mild grapefruit. Despite the similarities to citrus, langsat are actually a member of the mahogany family (thank you wikipedia!). Huh.

Yummy rating: These are very nice, but a bit fiddly to peel and leave your hands quite sticky. The seeds are harder to remove than those of citrus, but you really don't want to eat them as they are quite gross, so you have to be careful biting into these to avoid any unpleasant surprises. Overall, I love the taste and texture, but they're so much faff!

Update: I bought a second batch of these that appeared superficially larger, but had much thicker skins that came off more easily. This second batch had very few seeds, so was much easier to eat - if I could guarantee getting the varietal without all the seeds, these would easily move into my top 5 fruits.

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