Fish Sauce
  • Travelogue
  • Good Questions
  • Photos

Ripe for the Picking: The Mangosteen

6/8/2015

1 Comment

 

Indonesia, Thailand, & Myanmar

Picture
I had heard many people rave about the delectable mangosteen, but hadn't tried one until we went to Bali in late May, where the season was well underway. Since then, we've seen mangosteens in the markets of Thailand and Myanmar. In all of these places mangosteens are usually sold for about a dollar per half-kilo--about ten mangosteens. 

While the mangosteen will never replace the mango (no relation) as the most supreme tropical fruit, most people agree it's right up there as one of the most delicious and delightful fruits.

Its hard and fibrous purple rind protects a white fruit that is tangy sweet. The fruit sections inside have a texture similar to but softer and spongier than citrus.
Picture
To eat it, one cracks the outer rind, usually by just pinching and tearing it off. The revealed fruit sections slide out. Usually there is one section that contains a small tough seed, which is inedible. 
Picture
Mangosteens grow on trees native to Indonesia. Nowadays, however, mangosteen trees grow all over Southeast Asia and India, and they have been planted in tropical places in the Americas like Puerto Rico and Columbia. 

Once mangosteens are picked ripe, they spoil pretty quickly, so it's hard to find mangosteens anywhere outside of the tropics. The New York Times reported in 2007 that the purple fruits were available in NYC for about $45 per pound. At prices like that, I'd suggest you just hop a plane to the tropics during the mangosteen season.
1 Comment
Ruth
6/10/2015 04:03:01 am

They are selling these in Chinatown for $17 for about a dozen. Very good! Probably not as good as in Asia. Had a hard time peeling but then used knife to slice around the equator of the fruit - top popped right off.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Traveling Words

    “He had the traveler's temporary displacement when 'Where am I?' became 'Who am I?'"     
            ― Jim Harrison
                The Big Seven
         
      (with thanks to the other  
                J.H. for this quote)
            

    "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
          ― Mark Twain

     The Innocents Abroad
     

    ARCHIVES


    -Graffiti Bangkok

    -Ripe for the Picking:
         The Mangosteen
    -Bali's Beautiful Offerings
    -How to Eat Balut
    -Bicol Express
    -Hong Kong
    -In the Kitchen with 
           Aurora
    -No Mo' Bad Adobo. Please.
    -Rocks: Part1 -- Volcanoes
    -Cockfighting
    -Tropical Flora: Part 2
    -Tropical Flora: Part 1
    -Barangay Ball
    -The Tarsiers of Bohol
    -The Green 
    Mango
    -Escape to the Tropics: 

          Mangoes
    -O Blessed Travels 

          Tricycles
    -Dogs of the Philippines
    -
    Pre-Hispanic Language
    -Wipe: TP vs. the Tabo
    -
    The Public Market
    -Money, Mani, Manny
    -Welcome

    Archives by Date:

    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © David Rohlfing and Fish Sauce, 2015. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material, including photos and text, without expressed and written permission from this blog's author/owner is strictly prohibited.
Proudly powered by Weebly