Rambutan! Thailand’s BEST Fruit!
One of my favorite times of the year is happening right now in Thailand.
It’s time for the RAMBUTANS to become RIPE! I’m a rambutan lush, I have to admit. I eat more of these things than a man has a right to!
What in the world are rambutans? You might be asking yourself…
Rambutans are probably the most exotic fruit you’ve ever seen in your life. Maybe you’ve never seen them. They are grown the best in the south of Thailand. In fact, the best place I’ve ever had them from is from an area called, Ban Na San… a very small village along a river south of Surat Thani town about 30 km. Every year they have a huge week-long RAMBUTAN FESTIVAL there to celebrate since most of the residents make their living growing rambutans on their farms.
Rambutans when they’re best, are just bigger than golf balls and a lot more oblong (oval) than a round golf ball. They are bursting with flavor though there is nothing I could compare the taste of a rambutan to unless you are familiar with another exotic fruit called the “longan” or “lumyai”. The texture too is something quite unlike fruits I’ve had in America. Amost like a hard, fleshy grape. There is not a lot of juice in rambutans - loose juice that is, because the juice is locked up in the almost clear fruity flesh.
A rambutan is best had in mid-season - somewhere around June-August as they seem to be most sweet, and large by then. The color ranges from a yellowish to an intense pink or red color. The color doesn’t matter much with regards to taste, as long ast the fruit is bigger than a golf ball you can almost be assured it is more sweet than sour. When it’s ripe the flesh separates easily from the seed. When not quite ripe the flesh sticks to the rambutan seed and the taste is a little sour overall, still not a bad taste though!
There are over 100 (I stopped counting at 100) green grass-like hairs a half inch to 3/4 inches long with slightly curled ends protruding from every rambutan. This is normal, do not be afraid.
Upon first inspection you might think it inedible, or, that it resembles poisonous caterpillars that even when touched bring great burning pain through your skin. Nothing could be further from the truth, though you may find some black ants in your batch you purchase. There is one crawling on my rambutan I brought out of the bag!
How to eat a rambutan?
There are a couple theories on this but I take the quickest route which doesn’t require a knife. Takign the rambutan in front of me in both hands I grip it like I’m wringing washed wet socks dry and twist the skin of the fruit in opposite directions with each hand. Invariably the skin tears and an incredible bulbous clear fleshy rambutan is waiting for me to suck it out with suction or bite and pull it from the other half of the skin.
When chewing a rambutan you’ll eventually come up with a good system to let you avoid biting directly into the seed in the middle that is about the same size, shape and color as a big almond nut. I usually put the whole rambutan in the side of my mouth and chew almost halfway through it longways and maneuver it around using my tongue until I’ve pulled off 95% of the flesh. Then I either spit out the seed or pull the seed out with my fingers and polish off the remaining fruit.
There is an exo-seed type peel that is loose and surrounds the hard seed - it’s fine to eat, but may take some getting used to. I didn’t like it at all for the first few months I ate the fruit, but gradually it made no difference to me to eat it along with the rest of the flesh.
Be careful if you eat a lot of rambutan at one time not to handle the fleshy part with your fingers before you eat it as pesticides are usually used on the outside of the fruit to keep it safe from pests eating it. It’s delicious to them too.
Rambutans here in Thailand are at the usual rate of 15-25 baht per kilogram (2.2lbs). 25 baht is roughly equivalent to 80cents USD.
Rambutan taste is something you’ll quickly become accustomed to and addicted to. I am completely addicted and when each season comes I eat kilogram after kilogram of the fruit!
Short rambutan video here >
More Thai food videos at Joy’s Thai Food YouTube Channel >
There are two kinds of rambutans in Thailand: Rong Rien (grade school) like those seen here, and one with pink hairs instead of green & yellow called the “Si Chompoo” (pink).
Vern
FREE Thai Food E-Books! No purchase required…
Sawasdee Ka!
I just finished writing a new page here at the blog… in the upper left hand side you can see it - “FREE Thai Food E-Books!”.
We decided to just give away both of our e-books for free since we’ll be able to have more people see them and enjoy them!
If you don’t know what an e-book is, it’s simply a Word file with photos and nice formatting converted into an Adobe PDF format that you can read on your computer, PDA, phone, or maybe even your watch. It makes the files easy to read on electronic readers too - you may have heard about Microsoft’s and Amazon’s new readers. They are e-book readers designed specially for reading e-books.
If you want to get both e-books here are the links below…
Joy’s Thai Food Recipe E-book, 99 pages, fully illustrated, fully FREE!
Joy’s Top 20 Thai Desserts E-book, 38 pages, fully illustrated, also - fully FREE!
Thai Fruit: มะนาวดอง Manao Dong (Preserved Lemon)
มะนาวดอง
Manao Dong
(Preserved Lemon)
Prepare:
20 green lemons
1 cup salt
4 cup water
Cooking Instructions:
1. Clean the lemon. Scrape its skin with rock. (Same kind of rock we use for our skin)
2. Steam the lemon in boiling water for 15 minutes. Don’t let the lemon’s skin crack.
3. Remove from the stove and leave it cool off.
4. After that, arrange them into a glass jar.
5. Next, boil water with salt on medium fire. When the salt is dissolved, then turn off the fire.
6. Pour salted water in the jar while it’s still hot. Seal the jar and keep outside at room temperature for 1 month.
See my next post about how to cook food with preserved lemon tomorrow.
Thai Food Recipe: ปลาราดพริก Bpla Raad Prik (Deep fried fish with 3 flavors sauce)
ปลาราดพริก Bpla Raad Prik (Deep fried fish with 3 flavors sauce)
ปลาราดพริก
Bpla Raad Prik
(Deep fried fish with 3 flavors sauce)
Prepare:
1 tilapia (or any kind of fish you like)
4 tbsp. sliced red onion
2 tbsp. roughly cut garlic
3 tbsp. cut chili pepper (more or less as you like)
4 big size chili peppers
(remove the seeds and ground finely, this pepper will help with color)
3 coriander roots
2 tbsp. palm sugar
3 tbsp. fish sauce
4 tbsp. concentrated tamarind juice
1 tbsp. tapioca flour
2 cups vegetable oil
Cooking Instructions:
1. Scrape the scales off, cut the stomach and remove the inside part, make stripe the whole fish and clean again. Wipe the fish with kitchen towels.
2. Heat the pan, use high volume. Add vegetable oil. Wait until the oil is very hot and then lower it to medium. Deep fried whole fish in vegetable oil until it is crunchy.
3. Remove from the pan when it’s cooked.
4. Next, in a small bowl we will make the sweet and sour sauce. Mix concentrated tamarind juice, palm sugar, fish sauce all together. Taste the sauce and make it 3 flavors (sour, sweet, salty). Mix tapioca flour with 1 tbsp. water then add into the sauce.
5. Boil the sauce on low heat until it get thick. Remove from the stove.
6. After that, in a small pan, add 2 tbsp. vegetable oil. When it’s hot add onion, chili peppers and coriander roots. Stir-fry for 30 seconds.
7. Then, add the sauce from step 4 and mix well. Turn off the fire.
8. Place lettuce on a big plate. When the fried fish cool off, put it on the lettuce. Arrange sliced tomatoes and cucumbers on a side and dress 3 flavors sauce on top of the fish. Serve with jasmine rice.
This recipe is very easy. I got one fresh Tilapia from Tesco Lotus and have them fried it for me (free) :p It was only 16 Baht!!! I’m so excited to get it that cheap. Haha Anyway one fish was enough for me because my husband doesn’t like anything fried.
In Thailand, we fry the fish so crunchy that we will be able to eat the bone and head. I don’t eat the head but some people do.
