Fruity Times

The other night Thistler and I were walking home from dinner at a local eatery when we heard a strange 'rustle' and 'thump'. A coconut dropped from a tree to the street in front of us! We thought that was pretty darn special, and lucky because one of us could easily have had a nasty coconut encounter. Fruity times, absolutely. I bet every single person who travels to south east Asia tells you about the AMAZING fruit they ate there. Well, they are right to tell you, because it really is a culinary highlight. And now I am going to tell you. I've already written about dragon fruit here. We had red flesh dragon fruit the other day which was pretty incredible. That's the thing about tropical fruit. It looks AMAZING. It knocks your socks off when you see a dragon fruit or a rambutan for the first time, in real life. Rambutans are a lot like lychees, but bigger, their skin is redder and they're sweet with a smack of coconut.



rambutans image from here


Starfruit is by far the cutest of the fruits I've tried. When it's sliced you have star shaped pieces. AMAZING! It's pretty mild tasting, a little tart and crisp and wholly refreshing.


image from here



water apple image from here

This is water apple. Darn, it looks nice and is refreshing to eat. It has a crisp, but sort of soft texture. That makes sense, doesn't is? We've eaten mangoes, oranges, apples, bananas and mandarins to our hearts content but you already know what they look like. Maybe you are eating one now. Me? Oh, I'm eating a pastry. From the 'French' bakery. In KL. I had mango for breakfast, OK?! Anyway, the fruit that really takes the cake, in terms of new sweet flavour full experiences is mangostein. Whew, it's so sweet and juicy! It isn't as impressive looking as some fruits, but these little dudes really pack a punch. My favourite, by far.


mangostein image from here

Of course, you can probably get most of this stuff in Australia but betcha can't get 3kg for RM10 (that's about AUD$3 if you're not familiar with the exchange rate...) What fruit are eating now? Pears? Oranges? I had orange sliced and drizzled with cinnamon syrup, pistachios and mint when we had brunch in the city a while ago. I recreated it at home by drizzling honey and scattering cinnamon, almonds and mint on my orange. It's blooming nice with yogurt and makes a super easy dessert! Go on, try it. You'll be AMAZED!