Visiting Thailand and eating only the fruit you know is like traveling to Italy and eating only spaghetti. Just as the Italians have perfected dozens of variations of pasta, the Thais have cultivated an intriguing selection of fresh fruits not found in most Western produce sections.

      Instead of a slice of pineapple, why not try a mangos teen floret? Opt for papaya over watermelon for a change. Rather than a regular old banana, seek out a durian or jackfruit. Then of course there are rambutan, pomelo, custard apples, rose apples, mimusop, tamarind, guavas, mangoes the list goes on, depending on the season, but you get the idea.

      Of all Thai fruits, perhaps the mangos teen is the most deceiving. How can something so ugly taste so good? When glimpsed at open-air markets piled high on a table, these dark-purple orbs about the size of a baseball are often scarred with imperfections. But beneath the threatening skin, which can be opened using the fingernails but less messily with a knife, is a multi-sectioned clump of tender white flesh that literally melts in the mouth.

      There are as many sections to the mangos teen, or mangkood, as there are lines on the bottom of the fruit. Mangos teen are in season from April to September, and get cheaper as the season progresses. One word of warning: take care when eating, as the purple skin tends to stain everything it touches.

      One month after mangos teens come into season, the humble rambulan joins the fray, of all the Thai fruits, the ambulant is arguably the most curious looking. Known in Thai as ngow, the eggshaped fruit are red underneath, but are covered with dozens of wiry green tendrils.

      The fruit is opened by digging the thumbnail into the skin about half-way down and then twisting. Inside is an oval chunk of white, succulent flesh which is cool and refreshing. Hidden in the center is a woody seed, which should not be eaten, but won’t hurt you if a bit of it’s ingested.

      From may to September, samui is inundated with the popular fruit, in part because of its proximity to Na Sarn, a small village near Suratthani famous across Thailand for its sweet rambutan, and in part because Thais just love their ngow.
Jackfruit share the same season as rambutan. Known in Thai as kanoon, to call this fruit large would be an understatement. This fruit is huge, growing to such sizes that the theory of gravity is retested every time one of these babies reaches maturity.

      Aside from being the largest fruit in Thailand, the jackfruit can also be identified by its green-yellow bumpy skin. Although the fruit are sold whole, the sticky flesh which lies within is quite difficult to remove and is best bought prepared from a fruit vendor. When freed from its giant casing, this tangy fruit looks like little golden bags, each with a seed inside.

      The other Thai fruit known for its size-but more so for its smell-is durian. Every year as this fruit comes into season (May to July), an informal battle rages across the country. On one side are those who love durian, proclaiming it the King of Fruits. On the other side are those who hate everything about the pungent fruit, and call it many names not fit for print.

      On Samui, it is difficult to escape durian, as the mountains are rife with durian orchards, and, over the years, the island has gained a reputation for growing some of the best durian in the country.

      As with the jackfruit, you’ll want to buy durian already prepared as the sharp spiky skin is virtually impossible to remove without donning a thick pair of gloves and wielding a hatchet. But what does durian taste like? There’s only one way to find out. Should you turn out to be another fan, have a little care-don’t eat too fast. This fruit is very rich, and local wisdom has it that it shouldn’t be consumed with alcohol, as it can cause the body to overheat.

      Papaya is another fruit with a curious taste. In Fact, many people squeeze a bit of lime juice over it to help offset the bitter flavour. Known in Thai as malagor, papaya is high in vitamin C and is easily identified by its dark-green skin and its deep-orange flesh. Classified as a large berry, the fruit reaches an average weight of two pounds. Because of a natural digestive enzyme, papaya is often used as a meat tenderizer, and is a good food (along with rice) to help settle an upset stomach.

      Perpared papaya is skinned, seeded and sliced into long segments, which are then cut into bite-sized chunks. Papaya pop up quite often as fruit carvings and are a staple on most restaurants’ fruit plates.
Pemelo (som-oh) is also available throughout the year. Resembling a grapefruit in both looks and flavour, the skin of the pomelo so think, that about half the weight of the fruit is discarded by the time the flesh is reached. Like jackfruit and durian, this fruit is best bought prepared.

      The actual flesh of the pomelo is made up of hundreds of individual sachets bursting with juicy vibrant flavour, which are separated into sections by a thick white pulp. However, the tiny morsels lack the sour bite of the pomelo’s better-known cousin the grape fruit. Som-oh is found in many Thai salads (yam), most notably those from northern Thailand.

       Noi na, or custard apple, practically grows wild on the island, much as citrus trees dot the American southwest. The fruits are best when ripened on the tree. The bulbous skin of the apple is easily broken open to reveal creamy white flesh concealing numerous black pips. The flavour tends to waver between pineapple and fresh strawberries.

      The rose apple, or chom-phoo, is succulentand crisp, and eaten the same way as a regular apple. Similar to watermelon in that it is refreshing but doesn’t have much flavour, the fruit gets its name from the delicate rose fragrance that emerges went it’s eaten. Originally from India, the rose apple always has three seeds inside.

      Known in English as either mimusop or sapodilla, la-mood have earned a special place in the hearts of most Thais. For the Westerner, however, the rich, dense meat (reminiscent of brown sugar and figs) takes some getting used to.
Another Thai favourite is tamarind. Found more often incorporated in sauces than as a straightforward fruit, tamarind (ma-karm) looks like an overgrown green bean. It’s difficult to eat by it self because the skin sticks to the flesh which sticks to the seeds, but tamarind sauce is delicious.

      The crisp white flesh or the guava, known locally as farang, is best eaten when young. Although quite bland, the locals jazz this fruit up by dipping it into a sugar and red chili mixture. Fruit vendors just slice this fruit into spears, and it’s eaten skin and all.

      In the west, mangoes are generally eaten ripe. But in Thailand, green mango (mamuang) are preferable-especially in cooking. Resembling a kidney-shaped peach, ripe and unripe mangoes have widely different tastes. Where an unripe mango is bitter and harsh, a ripe one is somewhere between an apricot and a pineapple. Ripe mangoes can be found in one of Thailand’s best-known desserts-mango with sticky rice.

      Not all the fruits found on the island are so exotic-one can always find the standard pineapple, the banana, and of course, coconut.

      While in the West, pineapples are mostly found in tins on Samui, fresh sappharot is the only way to go. Two to three years after a pineapple bush is planted, flowers emerge from which the fruit is formed. As the fruit matures, the stem continues to grow through the stem continues to grow through the center of the fruit, and pokes out above, forming a crown of leaves.

      With more than 70 known species of bananas, you can bet that this is one fruit found in every culture across the globe. Koh Samui’s climate is ideal for bananas, and it even boasts its own hybrid – kluey khai, or “egg banana”. This small, meaty fruit has a flavour that’s quite different from the more common Canary bananas. Kluey khai lends itself well to cooking and is often used to make banana fritters.
Bananas are thought to have originated in Asia, and indeed records of their cultivation date back further than those of rice. The trunk of the banana tree is not a real stem, but a series of tightly wrapped large leaf bases or sheaths, growing tile-like, one upon another.

      Where there are coconut palms, there and bound to be coconut. Koh Samui exports an average of two million coconuts per month – but don’t worry, plenty still remain on the island for visitors to enjoy.
The coconut palm stretches as high as 75 feet, with leaves as long as 18 feet forming a crown near the top where the fruit is found. It takes about six months for a coconut (ma-phrao) to ripen. A green, unripe coconut contains a sweet liquid known as coconut juice, and a thin gelatinous layer of meat. The liquid found in a ripe, brown coconut is not to be consumed, but the flesh is.

      Many other fruits, both familiar and unfamiliar, are available on the island depending on the season. Don’t be afraid to do a little experimenting you’ll be glad you did.

 

 

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