The rose apple actually looks a bit like a pear. And they taste more like watermelon than apple. The fruit has nothing to do with roses or apples. They are a bit the size of an apple and are often red, but then we have had the similarities.
Again, it doesn't matter how you look, because rose apples are tasty and fresh. You see them a lot in Thailand, where they are called chompoe, but they probably originate from Malaysia.
They are green and a bit purple, but you usually see the red variety. The rose apple, which only tastes a bit like apple, contains 90% water and tastes a bit sour and sweet. You eat them with peel and all. The aftertaste is a bit bitter.
That's why Thai people sometimes throw some sugar over it, most Dutch people will find that too sweet. You usually only see rose apples in the areas where they grow. Because they ripen very quickly and have a very thin skin, they are easily damaged and therefore difficult to transport over long distances. Most of the time, we say, because those who search well can find them in Europe.
This colorful fruit looks a bit unapproachable, like a porcupine that sets up its spines to protect itself. In Thailand they grow abundantly in the summer months and they call it ngoh. We know it as rambutan, which comes from Malaysian, where it means hairy.
It's a good name actually and you can also say that it is a hairy litchi. They both have a big seed with sweet white flesh around it.The rambutan reached parts of Europe via Indonesia, but it is also plausible that a hundred years ago Europeans in South America also came across the fruit. Nowadays, most of the rambutan comes from Thailand, which has become the largest producer of the fruit.
When the season for ngoh arrives there you can hear the farmers on the street on their open trucks offering their freshly picked fruit through loudspeakers. All nice and nice, you may think, but how do I eat that thing. Simple: hold it with two hands and quietly tear open the skin of the rambutan in the middle with one hand. Don't bite too eagerly, we told you, they've got quite a spunk.
The Thai are lucky. In their country everything a human being needs is growing: rice, coffee and tea, unprecedented varieties of vegetables and the most strange and colourful kinds of fruit. Mango, banana, papaya, watermelon or pineapple, you know them. But have you ever tasted jackfruit, rambutan, custard apple, durian, dragon fruit, mangosteen or rose apple?
Fruit is sold all over the streets. It usually costs you a few quarters. Fresh pineapple or mango (do you want sour or sweet?), rose apple (or any other fruit of the season) is -if necessary- peeled on the spot and cut into bite-sized pieces for you. Hup, in a bag and a stick to prick it out. For more acidic fruits you often get a bag with a mixture of salt and chili powder.
Others prefer a sweet fish sauce with unripe mango and we also know Thai who like a dry mixture of fish, onions and sugar with their watermelon. Thai people like it when the flavours fight with each other on the palate for priority and prefer to set them on fire.
Fruit is mainly eaten by Thai as a snack. As lunch, as dessert after dinner, or just in between. Fortunately, fruit is also perfectly incorporated in Thai dishes. Take sticky rice with mango, without a doubt Thailand's most acclaimed sweet delicacy. And how about fresh pineapple in a chicken sweet and sour stir-fry dish? Feast!
Exotic fruits. Summer photo concept. Mango. A pineapple. Avocado. Kiwi. Pitahaya.. Kumhvat. Copyspase. Fresh fruits. Exotic fruits on a gray background. Blueberry. Strawberry. Physalis. Tamarind
This is it, then. The durian. Dreaded because of its pungent smell, but for many Thai (and other Asians) their favorite piece of fruit and therefore sometimes affectionately called the king of fruit.
How does it taste? Yes, difficult. It's a bit sweet, a bit creamy, a bit indescribable. Some find it tastes like cheese, others like onions or sweaty socks... It's elusive, and that's what fascinates. The famous traveling cook Anthony Bourdain, who was fond of durian, would have described it this way: "You breathe smelly as if you've tongue-kissed your deceased grandmother."
Oops. Could be, but in Asia humans and animals love it (indeed, elephants and some monkeys like it too). And that it stinks, oh licorice stinks too.
It still makes a difference how fresh the durian is. Once picked or fallen from the tree, the fruit ripens very fast. In the beginning it tastes more like a hard bitter vegetable, then it becomes softer, sweeter and more fruity. Not unimportant: they are full of vitamins and minerals!
Durian doesn't exactly look like a cute apple. They are tough guys, those durians. They have a thick frightening pointy skin and can grow to 20 to 30 centimeters and 10, 15 centimeters thick, weighing easily over 10 kilos. Because of that size, they are sometimes confused with jackfruit (also called nangka), which two look alike. Only jackfruit is usually even bigger. We'll talk about jackfruit next time. But.... are you going to taste durian the next time you have the chance?
Apple, orange and banana are the most popular fruits in Europe. Understandable, because they are tasty and healthy. You also see these three in Thailand, but only the banana competes for the popularity price. Not easy, because the supply of fruit is enormous. Thai are much easier than Europeans in eating unripe fruit. The best examples are mango and papaya.
The ripe mango is yellow-orange inside and outside and is deliciously sweet. The unripe, green mango is sour and hard. This unripe variety is also very popular in Thailand and is often eaten as a snack, grated with a mixture of pepper, salt and sugar, for the taste kick. The ripe papaya also has orange flesh and a bit of a sweet, wiry taste.
At least as popular is the unripe papaya, which plays a leading role in Thai cuisine as the basis for the popular tom yam salad. Finally, is it unhealthy to eat unripe fruit? No, unripe papaya and mango contain less sugar, have vitamins and are good for bowel movements.
To be honest, if a colleague or friend had asked you about tamarind today, would you have known what it is? A musical instrument? A famous actress? Can you eat it? Yes, you can eat it.
Tamarind is a legume. Tamar Hindi means Date of India, then you get a nice idea. The flesh of the tamarind is reminiscent of the flesh of dates. Most tamarinds come from India, although the legume was previously found in African countries. Nowadays it grows in many warm places, but especially in Asia.
If you want to eat tamarind, you have to be patient. The tree grows very slowly, but is very strong (and can grow up to 25 meters), tolerates a lot of sun and prolonged drought. Only after about five years the tree produces fruit. Then you're not there yet. The fruit is not very easy to eat.
You have to peel the tamarind. Oval, hard seeds are embedded in dark brown fibrous flesh. Only when you have removed the skin, the stringy fibres and the seeds can you taste the fruit. That's a bit of a hassle. The flesh and fibres are quite intertwined and are difficult to separate. Why are we actually telling you this, because you don't have to do all this yourself. We already did it for you and we put it in a bottle. A bottle full of the tamarind's flesh, ready to use.
Tamarind is enormously versatile. It goes in curry or chutney, but also comes in handy when making lemon cake. It produces sodas, candy and from the flesh you make good jam. In Indonesia it is used in fresh peanut sauce, in Thailand it sometimes serves as a substitute for coffee, but perhaps the best known application is the Worcester sauce. Tamarind tastes sweet and sour, but a bit more sour than sweet, so it is a good substitute for vinegar and lemon juice.
For centuries, tamarind has been used in traditional medicines. This is not surprising, because tamarind contains many healthy ingredients. If you eat 100 grams of the legume, you already have over a quarter of your recommended daily intake of B1, and also quite a bit of B3 (12%) and vitamin C (6%). It also contains a lot of potassium and phosphorus.
We like that, but we prefer to use tamarind for cooking. For example, to give stir fried vegetables an extra kick, to dip fried fish, to fry spare ribs, to make cucumber salad or in the pad thai. In Asia they think exactly the same. Although they also use tamarind pulp to polish brass, copper and bronze. We don't do that.
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