Strange Fruit – some unusual Southeast Asian fruit

Unusual Southeast Asian fruit

Never ceases to amaze us that after some 30 years of living in Southeast Asia we’ll still come across – in a corner of a Thai or Lao market, in a Mekong Delta plantation, roadside Cambodian garden  or even as Vietnamese temple offering – some strange and unusual Southeast Asian fruit we’ve never come across before.

Some of these may simply be unfamiliar varieties of common fruit – there’s estimated to be over 1000 different kinds of banana on the planet; fruit that in Europe we’d only ever see in a can, (who’s ever seen a wild lychee tree) – or sometimes just very obscure species. Some of the latter examples of unusual Southeast Asian fruit are purely decorative and, for humans, inedible, which explains why, even in Southeast Asia, they’re rare. We recently came across something called a Buddha hand (or finger) fruit in a Hanoi market and while locals admit you wouldn’t want to eat it, it is a very and visually striking popular temple offering. (Wiki claims you can cook with it although that contradicts what even the vendor said.)

Back to bananas and while only a few of the aforementioned 1000 varieties are considered edible, the average Southeast Asia market array will still put to shame the 1 or 2 varieties seen in an average European supermarket. Not all grow in the region although a garden in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta is said to house some 300 local varieties. These include red, black and green (when ripe) varieties as well as the unique Javan blue. Popular ones not often seen outside of the region include the tiny and tasty lady finger banana  plus the short, stubby ones, whose English name we’re uncertain of, used for the sun-dried version we see on our Battambang cottage industries tour.

Other unusual Southeast Asian products may have very familiar names but are unknown as a fruit such as cashews. The nuts are popular everywhere but what about the plant the nuts originate from? Fortuitously, cashew trees grow in relatively poor, sandy soil making them a saviour for many Khmer farmers who aren’t lucky enough to own better land by one of the more important rivers and indeed Cambodia is now one of Southeast Asia’s largest producers. The yellow or red fruits (see side image) are edible and you will see them for sale in markets and roadside stalls although frankly, after trying them once, we can see why only the nuts are exported. (The one we tried was sickly sweet and left an odd, and not very agreeable, furry coating to the inside of your mouth.)

Another visually spectacular but pretty much inedible fruit is the curiously-named nipple fruit. We’ve only ever seen this on 2 or 3 occasions and as locals admit you wouldn’t want to eat it, we reckon it’s mainly cultivated for novelty value and its smirk-inducing name. (Udder fruit might be more accurate although local aren’t traditionally familiar with dairy cattle.)

Certain commonly seen offerings in local markets are probably not seen fit for import by foreign supermarket chains simply because they don’t appeal to Western tastes. Locally, many of these are eaten with spicy dips or dunked into dried chilli flakes and sugar but on their own don’t really have much flavour. We’d include in this category rose apples, guavas and even dragon fruit which may well look great in a fruit salad but isn’t going to add much to its flavour.

Other, tastier fruits are obviously too bulky to transport so it’d be rare to see a pomelo, jack fruit or durian in your local store. The former is one of our favourite Southeast Asian fruits but suffers from being large and weighty while the latter could merit a post in its own right. It’s the classic ‘love it or hate it’ item and while we’ve seen more than one of our more adventurous guests fall into the former description, it is also a large, heavy and awkward to transport fruit.

Conversely, we’re bemused by the many examples of very tasty yet small and easy to transport Southeast Asian fruits that are still largely absent from supermarket fruit and veg sections. These would include mangosteens – the so-called ‘queen of fruits’ (durian is considered the ‘king’) – juicy rambutans, sweet and sour snake fruit, sala or salak, and the various varieties – some tangy, others perfumed – of longan. Some of these we understand are occasionally seen in fancier shops, albeit at prohibitive prices, yet a rambutan for example comes with natural protective packaging, (they’re the thick-skinned, ‘hairy’ round, red fruit) and in season are ridiculously cheap.

While not exactly unusual Southeast Asian fruit, visitors are often surprised by common fruits that aren’t often eaten as such. That’s to say that in the region, mangoes and papayas are invariably consumed unripe – as vegetable in salads – and even when eaten on their own locals prefer them green and sour. Aside from the famous Thai mango and sticky rice dessert, the unripe, sour fruit is sliced and dipped into the aforementioned sugar and chilli powder mix.

Note that the proliferation of certain of the above-mentioned at hotel buffet breakfasts – e.g. dragon fruit and papaya – is merely because local don’t rate them so they’re cheap to buy.

Finally, even if some of these fruits are regularly seen in certain markets and specialist stores, the chances are they would be imported from, for instance, the Caribbean or Indian subcontinent. This is partly due to trade agreements but after all, why would you import a banana from far off Java instead of Ghana or a pineapple from land-locked Laos instead of Coast Rica. However, Central American and Southeast mangoes are not the same and indeed can be as different as say a golden delicious and a Granny Smiths. It also goes without saying that fresh fruit such as pineapple bears little resemblance to the canned alternative while a lychee out of our garden is unrecognisable as the same fruit on your local Chinese restaurant dessert menu.

Apart from the myriad unusual Southeast Asian fruit even the usual ones will offer some surprises so pick up a green mango, give that durian a go, try a soursop shake in Phnom Penh’s Russian Market, or, if you’re really lucky, try Wi’s fresh passion fruit cheesecake but stuff the imported blueberries and perhaps forget the cashew fruit.