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Frightfully freaky fruit

spaghetttti

By spaghetttti
in Food Traditions & Culture

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ronnie_suburban

ronnie_suburban

Posted
Posted
Oh, yes! Mr. Kaplan, please do share your recipe.  I have gobs of tamarind at home just waiting to be put to good, delicious use.

No recipe per se, but I've found that incorporating some tamarind (or tamarind paste) into the dressing adds a distinctively flavorful acidic element.

I usually add anywhere from few tablespoons to 1/4 cup to the initial 'mash' of other elements (garlic, vinegars, anchovy, herbs, egg yolk, roasted peppers, etc.) which I puree thoroughly, before I finally add the oil(s) to emulsify the dressing.

I'm happy to share more info, just let know if you need it.

And thanks again for this thread. It really is a treat. :smile:

=R=

"Hey, hey, careful man! There's a beverage here!" --The Dude, The Big Lebowski

LTHForum.com -- The definitive Chicago-based culinary chat site

ronnie_suburban 'at' yahoo.com

Dejah

Dejah

Posted
Posted
Sue-On, please come back and tell us what you got, ok?

From my trip to Winnipeg, I picked up dragon fruit, rambutan, dragon eyes, star fruit, and a can of tamarind drink.

The colour of the dragon fruit was so gorgeous! I hated to cut into it. It was amazing how the skin peeled back on each slice. The texture was a real surprise. I thought it would be soft like a kiwi as it looked like a "white kiwi" with all the little black specks. But it was firmer. It was sweet and yet not sweet. Perhaps it wasn't ripe enough? How do you tell? It was pretty expensive . . . $2.99 per lb Canadian. But my mom loved it so it was worth the price.

The rambutans were fun to have. My grandson thought they were aliens. My son cut one in half, ate the insides, then used the "shells" to cover his eyes. That grossed the grandson out! :laugh: They were sweet, but I found them too much work to eat.

The star fruit, according to my mom, was of the "sour tree". It was about 6" in length and the segments were large. This was an indicator of the kind of trees they came from. Didn't have much taste, but the texture was nice. My mom used to have a sweet how gaw and a sour how gaw tree in her garden in China. She used the sour tree ones as a pickled fruit. Again, she enjoyed it more than we did.

The dragon eyes were the favorite, sweet, juicy and easy to get into. They are available locally.

Haven't opened the tamarind drink yet.

Thanks Yetti for introducing this thread. With information in hand, I finally got to taste these beautiful and unusual fruits! :biggrin:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted

Rambutan is not hard at all to eat. Eat it the same way you eat lychee - pull off part of the skin with your fingers, eat the fruit, and spit out the pit. No knife should be necessary, though the skin is a bit tougher than lychee skin.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

skyflyer3

skyflyer3

Posted
Posted (edited)

I think black sapote may be what I know as "chico" in the Phillipines. It is brown on the outside, brown on the inside and three dark seeds in very juicy but slightly grainy flesh. It has a darkly sweet taste very much like coffee - if there were a coffee fruit, I think this would be it. Not that it is bitter, but it has that chocolatey, caramelly, roasted, round flavor that coffee has - more of the smell of it than the taste. I hope that makes sense. I don't like it, because it is too sweet for me, but then I love jackfruit, which is much sweeter, so go figure.

I have only had jackfruit canned, though, so fresh must be amazing! I have had a similar fruit to jackfruit - ababai - which must be cooked, though, before eating due to its high enzyme content. It tastes like peaches mixed with mangos - very sweet.

Edited by skyflyer3 (log)
spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Rambutan shell eyes for Halloween! Sue-On - Have you tried the tamarind drink yet? I really like it.

skyflyer3- That black sapote continues to sound intriguing. Haven't been able to find it here, hope it doesn't remain elusive too much longer!

I've not seen those here, gingerly, do you like them? How do you prefer to eat them?

It's jambu time, with so many varieties available now.

gallery_11814_8_1094957432.jpg

This guava is lovely to eat out of hand or

gallery_11814_8_1094961014.jpg

with some scoops of vanilla ice cream!

Edited by spaghetttti (log)

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

gingerly

gingerly

Posted
Posted
here's a clearer picture of the rose apples as i know them.how do i like to eat them?raw and by the bushel :laugh: i adore them!i've always felt like i was eating hollowed out rosebuds.at their best the flesh is firm but with an easy crispness to it and just a little moisture rather than any sort of juiciness-and that whiff of roses :wub:
Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted
This guava is lovely to eat out of hand or

gallery_11814_8_1094961014.jpg

with some scoops of vanilla ice cream!

Yetty, what's that on the left? It looks good!

Michael aka "Pan"

 

spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
Yetty, what's that on the left? It looks good!

Heheh, somehow I knew you'd be the one to ask! That is called pisang asar. Homemade by my sister-in-law, it's slices of pisang kepok, from a type of banana tree that she has growing in her back yard, topped with a mixture of ground kacang kenari (a type of almond, I guess) and gula merah/brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg & a little cardamom, then baked. That type of banana stays firm when cooked, so it's especially nice for pisang goreng/banana fritters, too.

Michael, it is good! I know you liked the bananas you used to get in Malaysia, have you ever had something similar to this dessert while you were there?

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted
I know you liked the bananas you used to get in Malaysia, have you ever had something similar to this dessert while you were there?

I don't think so, Yetty.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

gallery_11814_8_1095055431.jpg

I just had that luscious, juicy mango for lunch. This variety is called aromanis. Harum manis meaning frangrant - sweet, this wasn't particularly fragrant but it was heavenly sweet.

Now is the absolute right time for them, and I'm going to get some more!

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

  • 2 weeks later...
Laksa

Laksa

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yesterday, I picked up some prickly pear fruits or tunas from an Asian grocery store.

gallery_18308_142_1096233543.jpg

They have a wonderful flavor -- sweet, kinda like a cross between longans and persimmons. But they have a lot of very hard seeds in the fruit, like guavas, which make them a major pain to eat.

These ones have had their prickly spines removed so they don't look that frightful or freaky.

Edited by Laksa (log)
Dinner and a Show!
spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

gallery_18308_142_1096233543.jpg

oooh David, I love the color of this fruit! I'm wondering how you eat it.

That pulp!

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

The cravings have yet to subside for some buah nona/srikaya, and I finally found some, but they're not ripe yet! Ugly fruit, yet creamy delicious! I'm so disappointed.

gallery_11814_92_1096298285.jpg

Well, another day. :sad:

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

Laksa

Laksa

Posted
Posted
oooh David, I love the color of this fruit! I'm wondering how you eat it. 

That pulp!

Yetty, I'm not sure the way I'm doing it is the best way. I shoulda known something was up when the guy working at the produce dept told me that you don't necessarily have to spit out the seeds, you could swallow them. That's useful to know if I need a fiber boost in my diet. The seeds are a major pain, and there are so many of them! They are harder than passionfruit seeds, maybe even harder than guava seeds.

The pulpy (and seedy) center has the most flavor. The narrow ring of flesh around the pulp is pretty flavorful too.

I think making drinks or jams with the pulpy seeds might be the way to go.

Dinner and a Show!
spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Now see, here's one of the strange things about me -- I like most seeds and I chomp on them! I think I may have posted on a thread on that topic. But I see your point, perhaps, the tunas seeds are too hard to enjoyably gnaw on.

Where do these pears come from?

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

Laksa

Laksa

Posted
Posted
Where do these pears come from?

I got them from Kam Sen in White Plains, NY.

Oh.... you mean where where. :raz: I think they grow in the desert, probably South-western US? Prickly pears are a cactus.

Dinner and a Show!
spaghetttti

spaghetttti

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

You are too funny, David!

Did someone mention pineapple?

gallery_11814_148_1096345126.jpg

heheh, I just really like this picture! :raz:

gingerly, you never cease to amaze me, you should get an award for coming up with the freakiest fruit! More, more please! :laugh:

Yetty CintaS

I am spaghetttti

crouching tyler

crouching tyler

Posted
Posted
...

Not the right time for them now.  But I did get some lengkeng,  very very very sweet.

i12082.jpg

In Jamaica, as I child, I used to eat a fruit called a "Guinep" - I just knew how to say it, not spell it. I ate them straight off the tree - the method being to crack the skin with your teeth, and then eat the flesh, spitting out the pit.

It looked much like the lovely photo of the lengkengs/longans... I haven't ever found them in the States. Does anyone know if they are the same - or related?

Robin Tyler McWaters

gingerly

gingerly

Posted
Posted
In Jamaica, as I child, I used to eat a fruit called a "Guinep" - I just knew how to say it, not spell it. I ate them straight off the tree - the method being to crack the skin with your teeth, and then eat the flesh, spitting out the pit.

It looked much like the lovely photo of the lengkengs/longans... I haven't ever found them in the States. Does anyone know if they are the same - or related?

look here!

Tepee

Tepee

Posted
Posted

Behold! The fruit (already a piece of art from nature) turned into a masterpiece under skilled hands. Pics taken during a carving demo I attended on a cruise.

gallery_12248_157_1096552486.jpg

A closer view. Love his carving tool.

gallery_12248_157_1096552456.jpg

A pair of tangy birds

gallery_12248_157_1096552421.jpg

Oh, by the way, we had dragon fruit after the Moon Cake festival dinner at my MILs. She told me that the insides of the skin (which peels off, oh, so easily) can be used for a natural 'facial', which I just did. Good stuff! My skin feels sooooooo good and tight.

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

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