Fruit! Oh the wonders of fruit! I love Thailand if only for the fruit. This is something I am seriously considering giving a go when I get back to Boise, mobile fruit stands. they are everywhere in Thailand. Just picture: a seven foot by three feet wide and three feet deep plastic box with partitions splitting the rectangle into five different sections. the bottom half of each section is filled with ice. Sitting atop the ice are various fruits. Watermelon (daeng mu), pineapple (sapan rot), guava (farang), cantaloupe (cantaloupe), mango (mango), and coconut. This rectangle is suspended on one side by two over large bicycle wheels with an axle supporting the rectangle and two legs with a crosspiece on the other. there is a large, multi-colored umbrella that one typically sees covering stationery outdoor tables coming from the leg side of the rectangle. A thai guy (or lady) stands on one side, usually the building-side, and awaits you. You walk up and point at the fruit of your choice, for me it is daeng mu or sapan rot and lately been liking the farang because it is their season and they are tasting fabulous. The thai guy spears/picks up your choice and slices it (in the case of sapan rot and daeng mu) into two pieces lengthwise , then slides it into a plastic bag and hits it perpendicularly to the first slice with his knife five of six times chunking the fruit into manageable bites. I do not know how he does not cut the bag, it just happens. he then slides a shish kebab skewer into the bag, asks if you want sugar mixed with red pepper (a truly thai thing that I eschew), and hands the fruit over for 10 baht! Sweet Moses! That's 30 cents! and we are talking about enough fruit to fill your stomach no problem. (In the case of a guava or mango he slices the fruit to the core lengthwise while rotating the fruit clockwise) You then walk off spearing fresh, ice cold fruit and negotiating it to your mouth. I love fruit! Also, I don't know whether you've ever tasted these fruits, much less heard of them, the mangosteen, durian, and dragon fruit. Oh and lychee and ramadan (or something like that, I know it isn't actually called Ramadan)
Durian is called the King of Fruit, and this is because it is so versatile. Roast it and it tatses like potatoe chips, eat it fresh and it tastes like sweet mango/cantaloupe, there are many more uses as well that I have yet to discover or even suspect; it is probably part of the cups that I use to drink water and a main ingredient in the soup I had for dinner tonight! It is about the size of a football and greenish brown in color, it has spikes that make it look like a morningstar or mace, and it smells godawful. Seriously. I have been to guesthouses that do not allow you to bring durian in unless already sliced and ready to go. A filipino I work with summed it up nicely, "Smells like Hell, but tastes of Heaven". And it does taste so good. Mangosteen is called the Queen of fruits, and this is based on purely on its taste. It is a small purple ball, about the size of a plum, with a cartoon plant top to it. Four green leaves and a green stem coming directly from the center of the four leaves, it looks like something from Mario. The shell is somewhat thick, maybe a millimeter and the fruit is like a white mandarin orange with a consistency of the top layer of pudding when you leave it in the fridge. It is white. The taste is one of the best things I have ever eaten. It tastes of strawberries and grape and orange and mango and guava. I bought a kilo of them for 15 baht (50 cents) my first time ever tasting them and sat down to read a book. Before I knew it I had eaten the entire kilo! (2.2. pounds) They are sweet but not overpoweringly so, acidic but not mouth numbing. Truly the best fruit I have ever tasted. Lychees are juicy sonsofguns with a large nut in the center, as are ramadans or whatever they are called. They are supersweet and full of water, a few of them quench your thirst, but because of the sweetness you want more. And more. And more. The lychess are hard, pimple covered red balls, while the ramadans look like punk lychees. They are also reddish/purple, but have these tendrils growing off of them that turn green, bright, fluorescent green at the tips. Dragon fruits are also punks, inside and out. They are about the size of a pear and somewhat similar in shape. However they are purple on the outside, with flame like tendrils curling up their outer skin that peak in bright green as well. The inner meat is fuchsia. A color that I never expected in nature. Bright, bright fuchsia. They taste like fuchsia kiwis, and their flesh is like the kiwi complete with all those little seeds. I eat more fruit over in Thailand than I ever have in the States because it is so affordable and available. it is the perfect snack.
I am really excited because the seasons are changing which means new fruit! The mangosteen, sadly, will become more rare, but the guavas are beginning to take on flavor in such astounding leaps and bounds that I imagine they must soon stop or else risk spontaneous taste explosion. Also the baby bananas (kuai, pronouned k-wai) have started to really hit their stride. They are bananas, but not genetically engineered. That means they are about four inches in length. But they pack all the flavor of the bananas that I am used to into that package. So it is amazing! A burst of banana just itching to escape its flesh. I can't wait to see what fruit Thailand throws at me next. (Fruitwise)
Hope this finds you well,
Pat
