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.