Tropical Fruit Reviews

Just got back from traveling around Asia... Wandering the streets of vast metropoli, exploring obscure corners of ancient ruins, digging my toes into white sand beaches, and pattering around intricately decorated buddhist temples has led me to a new level of enlightenment. I've been missing out on some damn good fruit... Here's a roundup of my favorite new culinary delights, appearing in order of relative deliciousness:

1. Sugar Apple (originally introduced to me as Custard Apple, which is a misnomer even though it makes more sense): looks like more of a nubby artichoke than an apple. The flesh of this sucker has the consistency of an overripe melon (can be eaten with a spoon) and tastes like an amalgamation of pear, custard and apple.
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2. Rambutan, Longan, Lychee. Ok, so I've had a lychee before, but it was at the bottom of an alcoholic beverage, so that doesn't really count. These 3 fruits are in the same family, with an outer rind that is easily peeled off, revealing transluscent, grapelike flesh and an inner seed that you don't eat. The fruit tastes like varying degrees of sugary bliss, resembling the taste I believed I was going to be rewarded with when I chewed up and swallowed a wad of punch-flavored bubblicious as a kid. The rambutan receives the highest marks for looking like some sort of rockstar sea urchin. Longans taste a bit muskier than lychees or rambutan, but that's the only flavor difference between the 3 worth noting. These fruits are truly high rollers, their prestige warranting an international symposium.

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3. Jackfruit. The world's largest fruit. Here's where exotic fruit lovers start getting competitive: jackfruit fans, in an effort to keep up with the lychee lovers, have both a book and a festival with which to honor their tropical muse. These puppies are crisp and fibrous, taste like a cross between papaya and melon, and leave the palate with a hint of banana and bubble gum aftertaste.
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4. Dragonfruit. Looks like a hot pink ostrich egg enveloped with green flames on the outer rind, but once cut open, the appearance suspiciously resembles cookies and cream. This fruit comes from the pitaya cactus, and the pulp is a bit softer than melon. It tastes like a very mild melon, but is full of scrumptious little edible kiwi-like seeds.

 

5. Pomelo. A citrus that's larger than a grapefruit, with a very thick rind. The pulp's flavor occupies the happy territory in between an orange and a grapefruit.
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6. Mangosteen. The so-called queen of fruits resembles a mango in no way, shape, or form. With a round, purple shell, the inner flesh is segmented like a citrus and tastes grapey. Trendy health nuts have made claims that the mangosteen can heal everything from tumors to depression, but they fail to warn against a dangerous side effect: the rind will stain your clothes.
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7. Sweet Orange. Neither sweet nor orange. Well, it is sweet, but about 60% less sweet than the oranges I'm used to. Green = ripe for this one.
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8. Durian. This sucker is called the king of fruits... but let me just tell you, the smell is something to be reckoned with. I was warned that this fruit is stinky, but that understatement left me ill-prepared for the bombardment of urinal, B.O., and rotten eggs rolled into one edible package. The creamy yellow flesh tastes custardy and sweet, hinting of banana, but the horrible stench prevented my belly from accepting a sufficient volume of traffic to fully appreciate it. Durian's horrible smell is not welcome in fancy hotels (see sign, left), but doting fans obsess over the fruit's magical charisma and sex appeal (a Malaysian saying goes like this: When the durians come down, the sarongs come off). If you try durian, do so in an open field.

Comments

[Michael]

great recap of the tropical fruits! I was visiting my inlaws in Singapore and Malaysia and they were all durian freaks. Their fridges all had this sickly sweet vomit smell. I also made an hour trip flying from Singapore to KL and almost lost it because the people in the seat ahead of me had obviously just had a massive feed of durians and I could almost picture the cartoon smell fume lines emanating from them. My wife's uncle raved about some crazy ass expensive durians he found in Malaysia called "cat mountain kings." He told me until I tasted those I really was getting the full experience. But the run of the mill durians were more than enough for me. The ones I tasted were reminiscent of raw onions, vanilla ice cream, and an unidentifable rotting smell.

[Gordon]

Curiously enough, this month's Maisonneuve magazine ("Eclectic Curiosity" from Montreal) -- to which I subscribe -- features an ode to the elusive mangosteen... a fruit that I had never heard of until I read the article on the train this morning. Now, I've been introduced to it twice in a single day.

The online version of Maisonneuve (http://www.maisonneuve.org/) does not feature the article in question, but the article warns that the fruit in its most flavorful, sensual, intoxicating form simply cannot be had outside of Southeast Asia. So, what's a guy or gal to do?

[Jaylefus]

Durian is king! I remember getting my first one at the Asian market. It was frozen and didn't smell so bad. I thawed it and it still didn't smell to the level of the legends. Then I cut it open . . . and the most complex, horrendous and nearly demonic stench belched forth. Amazing! I recommend it highly.

[Bas van Dam]

First thing i noticed when i got to Djakarta, Indonesia were the illusive plastic bags people had on their outside rearview mirrors. Only sane way to transport Durian i found out later!
I found the taste rather bland and the texture nauseating.

[Nicki]

Jakarta is sometimes referred to as the Big Durian (NYC= the Big Apple.) Like the fruit, the city is an acquired taste.

[Juan Cano]

Just got back from the Yucatan, in Mexico. My parent's neighbor has a Pitahaya Cactus that grows so big it goes over the wall into my parent's yard. It had a beautiful Pitahaya on it. It tastes good with some sugar sprinkled on it. The kids hated it.

Other fruits that I've never seen in the US, but don't know what they're called in English:

Waya (small round green fruit, skin cracks open revealing a flesh colored interior around a pit almost as big as the fruit. Very tart)
Grosella (looks like a tiny pumpkin, size of a quarter. You can eat the skin and it's super sour, because it's always eaten before it's ripe for some reason)
Nancen (Size of a grape, yellow, don't remember what it tastes like, I hate it. They put it in jars with sugar syrup)

[Eileen]

I heard this from a woman who bought a durian in Chinatown and took it home to her posh NYC apartment. Awhile later the doorman knocked on her door, and asked, "Sorry to disturb you, but people complained they smell gas in the building and I think it's coming from your apartment!" :)

[Leilani]

Excellent post. In the Caribbean, sugar apples are known as "sweetsops", and mangosteens are "star apples". If you ever get a chance, make sure to try guinep/chenep fruit, naseberries, "stinkin' toe", soursops, and hairy mangos. Tasty stuff.

http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruittroex.html

[Mary Lou Powell]

What's the difference between a papaya and a mango?

[krish]

Good info on tropical fruits.

You may like this website www.thefruitbook.com

i like the blog!!!!!

[Busby SEO Challenge]

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[kabonfootprint]

good work..
it is a nice post

[SEO Guy]

i think rambutan is indonesian fruit name ?

[Busby SEO Test]

i like the rambutan

[Jeremy]

Ha-ha, I once tried a durian - it's incredible, it's impossible to eat, I can't understand who can consider it a king of fruit???

[Inventory Management Software]

People said that Dragonfruit is a new king of fruit..But I still believe that Durian is still the king