Exotic Fruits

As promised, I'm going to introduced to you some fruits that I grew up eating(in Malaysia). These fruits are common in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia. I do not know if you will be able to find any of these here in the US. Perhaps if you live in Los Angelss, San Francisco or New York City, you might be able to find them at an Asian market in Chinatown. I have linked the fruits to Wikipedia, if interested, you can click on over to read more about each fruit.

Durian - Also known in the Southeast Asia as the King of fruits. This fruit has a very strong unique smell which is loved by some and hated by some as well. It's one of those thing you either love it or you hate it. I can't even describe it to you. The part that's edible is the yellow flesh inside the very hard and thorny shell. The flesh is sweet and creamy. It's very tasty if you can get pass the smell. LOL!

Rambutan - I think this is/was my favorite! My parents had a rambutan tree in their yard. The ripen fruit is red but there are also yellow variaty. The outer shell is soft(even though they look prickly, they are not) and it can be easily peeled by your bare hands to get to the edible part. The edible flesh is sweet(some tart) and the texture resembles a grape. Inside the flesh is the seed.
Mangosteen - In Malaysia it's called Manggis. This purple fruit(yes, it is really purple) is sweet and it can be tart as well. The edible flesh is inside, which is white. The outer shell is purple which can and will stain your clothes if you are not careful.
Longan - This is native to China but can be found widely in the Southeast Asia. The word Longan means Dragon Eyes in Cantonese. The shell is thin and the flesh is sweet.
Jack fruit - In Malaysia this is called Nangka. This fruit has a green rubbery outer shell/rind and it's not as pricky as it looks. The edible part is the yellow "bulb" looking sections. Inside the flesh is the seed.
Papaya - The edible part of this fruit is the orangy flesh. The black part of this fruit is the seeds. Seeds & the membrane are removed(kinda like removing the seeds from a winter squash) before eating the flesh. Papaya can sometimes be found in a local grocery store. I do have a funny story about this fruit, I remember mom telling us about someone she knew trying to eat papaya for the very first time. The person ended up throwing the whole thing away because she thought it was rotten(the black seeds)!


Cempedak - Looks similar to the jackfruit but has a totally different texture. The flesh(yellow/sometimes orange "bulbs") is soft and sweet and sometime it could be a little stringy. It can be eaten fresh or can be made into fritters. Mmmm, I love fried cempedak. The seeds are edible as well, when cooked. Just boil the seeds until they are fork-tender. It tastes like cooked chestnuts. My mom however had told us(and it's a myth) that eating the cempedak seeds will make someone stupid. I think I turned out just fine. :)
Langsat - This is probably my least favorite fruit, maybe because it's mostly tangy. I only like sweet stuff. When the skin(thin leathery) is peeled, it reveals the translucent juicy flesh. The flesh is usually devided into segments and there might be small seeds in flesh. Careful not to eat bite into the seeds, they are very bitter!

Coconut - One cannot mention tropical fruits without talking about coconut. The picture below shows the fresh coconut that you don't/won't normally see. The white-processed coconut that you buy at the store is the white flesh that's inside the green husk. When the green fibery husk is removed, you'll get a very hard brown shell(the nut). Inside the shell is coconut juice(not to be confused with coconut milk) and coconut flesh. In a young coconut, the flesh is soft and the juice is clear and has a lightly sweet taste. I love drinking the juice straight out of a coconut. The flesh will get thicker and whiter as it aged. Coconut milk is extracted from the white aged flesh by grinding up the flesh, add some water and squeeze out the white milky juice.

Starfruit - The entire fruit is edible except for the seeds. It is very juicy. I have seens start fruits at a local grocery store.

This concludes our lesson on tropical/exotic fruits. Next time when you are at a grocery store/Asian market/international grocery store, try looking for some of these and why not give it a try. Who knows, you might like it.