Frightfully freaky fruit

[Episure]

Suresh, there's no fermentation at all in the milk that's used for kulfi in India? I thought I detected just a hint of yogurty taste in it.

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Pan,

No fermentation at all, in fact very fresh buffalo milk is preferred because it has to undergo a long period of reduction/boiling.

Did you find the yogurty taste in a plain or flavoured kulfi?

[Hector]

Fact on Mangosteens: Queen Victoria of England once offered an award of 50 million pounds to the one who could bring her a fresh mangosteen back to England.

Now that is some effort to get some fruit!

Durians are so scary!!!!

[Pan]

Suresh, there's no fermentation at all in the milk that's used for kulfi in India? I thought I detected just a hint of yogurty taste in it.

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Pan,

No fermentation at all, in fact very fresh buffalo milk is preferred because it has to undergo a long period of reduction/boiling.

Did you find the yogurty taste in a plain or flavoured kulfi?

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Pista, mango, etc. I guess it's just very rich milk.

[gingerly]

Yetty?

umm..kinda small-but tasty!

[spaghetttti]

Fabulous as usual, gingerly! Ummm, what are those? And how do they taste?

[Apicio]

Just a note of difference (that does not really make any difference), the green fruit that looks like hand-grenade is called sweetsop in Jamaica and sugar apple elsewhere in the English speaking countries where they are cultivated. Custard apple, although a close relative (family Annonaceae) looks different in colour and texture, the scales are flatter and almost concave instead of in high relief. Another close relative, the guayabano or soursop on the other hand is usually a lot larger and acidic. A modern hybrid called atemoya draws together the best qualities of this family, large, beautiful fresh flavour, very sweet and few seeds that are far between. This was my mother’s favorite. She planted a seed and it grew and bore fruits that looked like our old sweetsop albeit as large as baseball. Anyway, I was in Rio last week where they are now in high season, three large ones as big as husked coconut for five reais (around US$2.)

[Gastro888]

They look like Champange mangoes. My mom calls 'em pig kidney mangoes.

[gingerly]

They look like Champange mangoes.  My mom calls 'em pig kidney mangoes.

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those are the ones!i think they're minianture Ataulfos-very nice too.

(think i'll stick with 'champagne..')

[Gastro888]

Woo hoo! Oops, sorry for the mispelling. I have a crate at home and I'm waiting on them to ripen. Ahhh, mangoes.

[Laksa]

Durians are so scary!!!!

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Don't be scared of durians! They are your friends and they are delicious.

To allay your fears, I penned this haiku:

Durians are falling!

Their flesh is sweet but their shell

Makes a bad pillow.

[spaghetttti]

Durian

Delicious friend

Bad pillow

Yetty

Lonely

No friend

To share sweet flesh

Sad pillow

[gingerly]

met him on a monday and my heart stood still,

da durian run run,da durian run..

no,really-some of my best friends are durians.

[Mooshmouse]

The other day, my Mom gave me a few sections of a durian that she had bought. First put into a ziploc bag, then wrapped up in two knotted shopping bags. She made me promise not to open it in front of my dear husband lest I kill him with the smell. So I vowed to enjoy it outdoors in solitude.

The things you do for food.

[gingerly]

awww,it's a girl

look at those tiny little fingers.

[SuzySushi]

awww,it's a girl

look at those tiny little fingers.

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WOW!!!

[missmaia]

These are fabulous photos! Pray tell -- where do you live and where did you acquire these fruits? I'm in NoCal and wish to hunt some of them down...

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I'm a little late to chime in on this one (sorry!), but you're in NoCal... looks like Napa? Make a trip to the East Bay and find yourself a lovely market called the Berkley Bowl, located in Berkley (I *think* off Telegraph?). I found some of the most wonderful, strange, and exotic fruits and veggies there... It's one of the big reasons I'll find myself missing the Bay Area. I've bought fresh tamarind there, among other things.

[origamicrane]

this isn't a frightfully freaky fruit

but i thought it was freakily cool when i saw it

I found it in Tescos supermarket and it was the only one with the heart on

think someone stuck a sticker on it and allowed it to ripen

cool isn't it

is this like a new trend? or a way to label fruit?

[KarenS]

Back when summers meant dark, dark, tans- we used to tan ourselves like that (sun tatoos).

[Paradasia]

Anyone ever tried PULASAN ? It’s a close relative to the Rambutan, but it’s a far superior fruit since it is larger, more flavorful, and keeps a longer in the fridge.

The most interesting think about the Pulasan is that the edible-seed tastes almost exactly like an almond. This makes eating the fruit a 2-part experience; first the sweet jelly-like flesh, and then the crunchy- nutty interior seed.

I have more pics and info on pulasan at our website CLICK HERE

This is an indigenous tree fruit of Malaysia and Indonesia, but so far is not much exported.

[Milagai]

Anyone ever tried  PULASAN ?  It’s a close relative to the Rambutan, but it’s a far superior fruit since it is larger, more flavorful, and keeps a longer in the fridge.

The most interesting think about the Pulasan is that the edible-seed tastes almost exactly like an almond. This makes eating the fruit a 2-part experience; first the sweet jelly-like flesh, and then the crunchy- nutty interior seed.

I have more pics and info on pulasan at our website CLICK HERE

This is an indigenous tree fruit of Malaysia and Indonesia, but so far is not much exported.

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looks like lichee on steroids..

milagai

[Tepee]

Paradasia: You beat me to posting on Pulasan. We bought some from the pasar malam (night market) recently. I prefer the crunchiness of the rambutan's flesh over the more jelly-like flesh of the pulasan. It was very sweet, though. Besides, since the bunch we bought were probably picked off some jungle tree, half of it had suspicious holes in them.

Hubby just came back from his first wild jungle fruit feast in Miri, East Malaysia. He must have tasted about 6 fruits he'd never seen before, and brought home two.

OK, this first one, probably most of you are acquainted with, except yours truly. This is the Sibu olives...kana (Laksa mentioned earlier that this is his fav). To eat it, you blanch it for a few minutes in boiling water, fish it out and roll it in some sugar. Nice. Cutting the seed into 2, one can dig out the meat inside which is pleasantly nutty.

OK, now this next one I hope to get the real name of. DH was told that it is called buah talak, while SIL said she saw a pic of it with the label Dawai. Paradasia, if you can source this fruit, it would be quite saleable, I'm sure. It's delicious, especially, chilled! First of all, the fruit looks and feels so CUTE! Rubbery and hairy, the size of an average durian.

There's some pantang (taboo) that it must never touch the ground or it won't ripen. So, it's usually heavily wrapped in newspapers to act as a buffer. It's very easy to open when it's ripe. Opening it up reveals a fruit like the cempedak. The fruit is lighter in colour, the texture of the flesh is closer to that of a custard apple and mangosteen, and tastes rather like a cempedak, but better, not so pungent. The seeds are small, like a peanut. They tell us to wash and dry them. Frying them will loosen a thin skin and then you can eat it like a peanut. Cool. I like.

[sazji]

This is a wonderful, horrible thread. :) I have been living in Turkey for the last 6 years or so and though local fruit is very good here, mangos are still exotic. Next time I get some money, I'm going to Malaysia!

So (fantacizing but with a hint of seriousness here), when is the best time to go to SE Asia to sample the largest variety of fruits? I thought I was pretty well-versed but I saw things here I've *never* heard of.

"Salak" means "idiot" in Turkish, by the way.

bob

[Laksa]

Dunno how I missed your post earlier Tepee. Beautiful pictures.

Sibu olives are also called buah dabai (Iban). Once you get hooked on these, you'll always be wanting more! I can see a lot of EM trips in your hubby's future.

I've been told that the other fruit is called Terap (Artocarpus elasticus), and Google seems to be in agreement. (Google knows everything, he's so smart!)

The Sarawak Forestry Dept list Terap and Bintawak (Artocarpus anisophyllus) as wild fruits but don't go into details. Both are in the same genus as Cempedak and jackfruit.

[spaghetttti]

^

^ Oooh, those fruits do look freaky but very appetizing to me! The kana is something I'm familiar with, and you can see one of its applications in some photos that I'm about to post in the Ramadhan Fare thread in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific.

The following is somewhat disturbing... what some people do to some perfectly beautiful fruits is downright freaky. Lusty and sensuous papaya is one of my favorites, but I just cannot abide by them pickled.

Salak is bad enough in its natural state, but chillied and pickled is .... well, freaky....idiotic salak!

Although I think pickled watermelon rinds are great... what do you think of freaky pickled fruits?

Edited October 15, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Yetty, the photography in this thread is outstanding ... I have learned an incredible amount about different fruits that were completely unknown to me! Thanks for the "education"!