Sunday, August 02, 2009

Mangosteen: The Queen of Fruits

Mangosteens in front of a wall of durian

Out of all of these years I've been in Singapore, I can't believe that I haven't taken a more conscious note of these things. I mean, I've seen them around, but I never really took the time to eat them. These were mangosteens, a local fruit unrelated to the mango.

The meat inside looked like cloves of garlic, but were juicy and with a texture a bit like a lychee. Most importantly, they were very tangy, which instantly resonated with me. Known as the Queen of Fruits, it was fitting that we got it during a run for durian, or the King of Fruits.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

avoid the ones with the yellow dusty looking stuff inside.

On the subject of fruit do you know how to tell if a snake fruit (aka salak) (which is one of the cooler looking fruits around here) is ripe? The other day I got some that were too hard. I tried to rippen them on the kitchen counter but they pretty much got nasty.

Hey does the Chillies at Tanglin Mall have proper buffalo wings?

food je t'aime said...

these are my absolute favorite! sadly, you cant find them in taiwan or the us very easily. luckily, i found some in paris!

Ted said...

Hungry boy.
Why so mysterious? Love to know what you do for a living. Jealous.
Also, saw your visit to Roberto's...which makes me think you're from Socal?
I'm from Del Mar.
Do tell.

shakester said...

back after very very long ; good to see this blog going strong! :)
and I see you have a new camera, and some nice pics!

Anonymous said...

wow, looks almost like coco beans. or other stuff. I ate a "personal" watermelon recently. pretty good. althouth it was about 4 lbs. and took us two days to eat. ( but we also had fresh peaches from SC and some NC blueberries). and some ruhbarb. Mmm, like homer says, good pie, with some ice cream.

Anonymous said...

The older generation used to pair the Durian and the mangosteen as eating the durian was considered "heaty", and the Mangosteen a "cooling" fruit.

Anonymous said...

ha. the trouble with being the younger generation is in a blink of the eye ( seems like) YOU are the older generation. Good luck to you. You gave me quite a laugh, and I thank you. Don't wory, baring any unforseen accidents, you will be here soon. But what are dragon fruit? Can't get them in the US ( at least on the eastern side).

A. Rizzi said...

Those are bomb. Come to Viet Nam, you can grub a kilo for less than a buck. I need to get back to Singapore!