When I was in San Francisco for staging, the first couple days of Peace Corps before leaving for whatever country you’ve been assigned to, one of the facilitators said, “Any fruit lovers? You are going to love Thailand. There is so much fresh fruit and so many different kinds.” Having had a year to experience all of the different fruit seasons here, I can tell you for certain, that she was right. Let me give you a short run down of some of the fruits here that are not as widely available in the States.
Mangoes
Mangoes, ma muang in Thai, may not actually be that exotic in theory. However, there is such a variety of different kinds of mangoes. I tried to explain what the word “ripe” means to Kruu Ning by explaining it means when a fruit or vegetable is ready to eat, like when a mango is yellow. She replied with, “But we eat green mangoes too!” Which is absolutely true. And it is one of my favorite snacks: green mango dipped in a mix of sugar, salt and dried pepper called prik glua in Thai. Flag down a lady that sells them at bus station stops when you are on a long bus ride.
Papaya
Another fruit that may not be as exotic to people is papaya, malagaw in Thai. However, the most common way that I eat papaya is not when it is a beautiful, deep red-orange color but when it is still green, shredded and mixed with vinegar, sugar, peppers, garlic, lime, carrots, tomato and long beans in a spicy papaya salad known as som dtam. Ball up some sticky rice, khao niao, and eat it with your hands.
Jackfruit
Jackfruit, kanoon, was one of the new kinds of fruits that I encountered here. Last year, during Pre-Service Training, I lived with a host family that had a ton of different kinds of fruit trees all over the property and one morning I came out and saw this giant, bumpy thing just sitting in the middle of an old tire. A couple of days later, my host mom hacked it open, revealing a bunch of bright yellow-orange kind of pods with seeds in the middle. You eat the yellow-orange meat of the fruit, and it has a sweet, slightly tart flavor and a chewy texture which reminded me of fruit leather. Later, my host mom boiled the seeds to eat as a snack as well.
Durian
The king of the fruits is rather infamous for it’s smell. Yes, durian. Friends that live in areas that grow a lot of durian, dturian, complain on Facebook during harvest season about the smell that overtakes the village and doesn’t leave for months. Hotels and taxis have signs saying “No Durian.” To me, it doesn’t actually smell bad. I kind of like the taste of it and the texture is almost like a custard. It certainly does not taste like it smells.
Mangosteen
If there is a king of the fruits, you might be wondering if there is a queen. Well, of course there is; it’s the mangosteen, mankoot. The first time I heard of this fruit was when a friend gave me a mangosteen flavored Japanese candy. I was confused and thought she meant mango, which she correct me on. On the wrapper it looked like a black blob, so I had no idea what this fruit could even be. I like the candy, but I like the fruit even more. The rind is a deep red-purple and will stain your fingers magenta when you open it up to reveal the white meat of the fruit inside, with pieces kind of like an orange. Most of the slices have a pit like seed inside, so spit that out. I think these fruits are just super cute, with the leaves making a little hat on top.
Rambutan
This is a fruit that I first had in Honduras, but I didn’t really know what it was. In English is called a rambutan, ngaw in Thai. The hair-like tentacles on the outside or soft and forgiving. Twist off the hairy, red peel to reveal the white meat inside. There is a woody pit in the middle of the fruit, so don’t bite down too hard. I like these, but there is a woody skin on the pit that sticks to the meat of the fruit and ruins the flavor for me. I prefer these when they are commercially prepared, pitted and without the skin from the pit. Sometimes, you can get them stuffed with pineapple too, which I really like.
There are a lot more fruits available here in Thailand that people in the States are probably familiar with, like oranges, apples, bananas, pineapple and grapes. There’s also a lot more here than I could list, mostly because I don’t even know what they are, they just get put in front of me and I eat them. But these are some of the most prevalent that you’ll probably see and enjoy on a visit here.