Fresh Fruit, Anyone?

The tropics have a wide variety of fruit not grown in more temperate climates.  Some of them are available, but they are never as good after traveling thousands of miles.  We had a chance to see how many of them grow and to taste them, fresh from the field.

Fruit grown on this farm

The "King of Fruits" is durian.  Unfortunately it has a reputation of reeking, especially if it is not fully ripe.  It is not allowed on public transportation and is only sold in the market cut up and well wrapped in plastic.  The exterior is covered with sharp spines.  There is even a law forbidding attacking anyone with a durian.  The severity of the penalty depends on how many of the spines break off.  The fruit we tasted was not smelly and had the consistency of custard.  Actually, it was quite good.







The "Queen of Fruits" is mangosteen.  Unfortunately, they are not ripe this time of year.  However, we did see small green ones which had fallen off the tree.  By looking at the blossom end and counting the petals, you can tell how many seeds the mature fruit will have.  The fewer the seeds, the better the fruit.  The fruit on the left would have 5 seeds; the one on the right would have 7.




The only fruit I was not familiar with was the salaka, a purplish-brown fruit shaped like a water drop with bumps.  They grow in clusters and have one or two large seeds within a sweet flesh.  The sweet ones we had at the farm had brownish flesh and were sweeter than the white fleshed ones we had on the ship.











Our fruit buffet had pineapple, banana, guava, rose apple, green papaya, papaya, mango, dragon fruit and pomelo.  They also served mango, star fruit, longans and rambutans. (not pictured).  Everything was delicious!