Indonesian Fruits

The other day we stopped by H-Mart Grocery store and bought a single pomegranade fruit that Jan has never tasted. She was curious about this and wondered how it tasted. So, later that day I showed her how to open it, and inside the fruit there are cluster sections separated by a thin white membrane. The fruit contained clusters of red kernels separated by thin white membranes. The kernels are small tiny fruits each with a tiny seed within. It tasted mostly sweet with a little tartness to it. You can softly bite and suck out the juice, then spit the seed. It is too tedious to eat, but now she knows what that taste is like. The juice is almost similar to cranberry in taste, but sweeter. Needless to say, the numerous seed and lack of "meat" of this fruit is not it's selling point. Jan said that she's not going out her way to get it anymore. This strange fruit reminded me of the many, many fruits that I remember having eaten when I was still young in Indonesia. For example there is durian, which most every Caucasian find it dreadful. Even the strange food eater Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods host) was unable to eat it because it has a very strong smell and take some getting used too. To me, it smells and tastes good. The smooth, sweet custard like meat is just delicious. They even make cookies, jellies, and drinks with those flavor. You can even buy the concentrated essence in oriental grocery stores, just like vanilla flavorings. Then there is the rambutan, a hairy, reddish fruit with sweet, translucent meat when you peel off the hairy skin. Another fruit is called nangka (English name is jackfruit). This fruit is used in two different ways. When it is still unripe, the meat is used in cooking as a vegetable, cut up in small cubes. When ripen, the meat is somewhat dry, but has a sweet smell and taste. And then there is mangosteen. This is a round fruit the size of a small apple, the bottom of it has a flower pattern image usually about 4-6 petals. As a kid, we used to "gamble" on it and we'd guess how many segments of wedges there are inside the fruit (doesn't always match the petal pattern). The meat is white, and it is juicy and very sweet. I haven't eaten this fruit in more than 40 years! For more info and pictures, see the link I posted below.

http://www.indoindians.com/food/indfruit.htm