Jan 172012
Whether picked fresh from the garden’s fruit trees, purchased from a smiling market vendor or discovered in a fruit salad during a Choeng Mon Beach breakfast – you have to try these fruits of Thailand.
- Jackfruit (Winter/spring). Enjoy the fruit alone or with ice cream; the massive seeds have a variety of uses in cooking.
- Tamarind (Winter). Sticky stick stick! Tart and tangy when fresh, cloyingly sweet when dried. Bash the shell into pieces and chew pieces of the fruit. Beware of hard seeds hidden within.
- Mangosteen (Spring/autumn). These fruits resemble a little present. Cut through the thick red skin to find a bite-sized treat waiting within.
- Salak fruit (aka snake fruit) (Late spring/summer). While opening its scaly skin requires some creativity, the neat white cloves of this fruit are a brand new experience. Persistent peeling should be encouraged.
- Rambutan (Summer). Perhaps the most visually striking of tropical fruits – it’s also one of the cheapest. A delicious fruit to be inhaled in mammoth quantities. Dig in.
- Rose apple (Summer). A crunchy, bitter fruit with a texture like a very moist apple. Thais top with spiced sugar.
- Custard apple (aka sugar apple) (Summer). Rip in two with your hands and eat the insides with a spoon. Want to amp up the gluttony? Look for custard apple ice cream.
- Durian (Summer). Expensive, malodorous and possibly a weapon – the durian has seemingly little to recommend it. Be brave – the king of fruits has loyal followers for a reason (just don’t try carrying it home in a taxi).
- Pomelo (Autumn). The biggest citrus is really an improved grapefruit: it’s at once sweeter and easier to eat. For convenience buy one that’s already been cut up.
- Sapodilla (Autumn). Remove the peel & eat as you would a pear. This fruit makes a forgiving target for fruit carving practice.
As a sneaky 11th addition, even a few meals on Koh Samui offer great opportunity to try Thailand’s best coconuts, in all sorts of ways.
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