bumpy apples: mang cau tamg
I love Bumpy Apples! The hard outer shells are peeled off and expose a firm apple/pear like fruit that’s very sweet.
apples: tao
Yes – they have apples everywhere! Now, if I could just figure out how to bake a pie without a stove - I would be really happy!
rambutan: chom chom
Rambutan look a bit scarey, but they taste wonderful! You break off the colorful, hairy outer shell and you get to sweet fruite inside!
water-coconut: dua-nuoc
Water coconut is a relative to the standard coconut. You find these in the Mekong Delta and they taste just like a regular coconut! I have seen these around Saigon for a while now and never knew what they were! They look quite menacing, but dont’ be afraid to give them a try!
tamarind: me
Tamarind is used for many things, but it can also be eaten plain as a fruit. You just peel off the hard shell and get to a soft, sticky, red fruit with a small pit in the middle.
persimmons: hong
Persimmons are filling the markets right now. They come from Dalt and are juicy and yummy! They have a few different varieties – soft or crunchy. I prefer the soft – the texture of a tomato, but taste much sweeter!
longa: nhan
For some reason when I eat longa it reminds me of the fall in the US. Peel off the thin outer shell and eat the fruit inside. Good, small, sweet treat!
durian: sau rieng
Durian, the king of fruit. You can read about my experience trying durian here. You can find it everywhere in the markets now – or should I say – you can smell it everywhere in the markets now! Eaten alone, in shakes or ice cream – the smelly and squishy fruit is an aquired taste for sure!
coconuts: dua
dragon-fruit: thanh-long
So – get out to those markets and start buying and trying some of this colorful, delicious fruit!
I love food too, and love exploring native fruits as you do! I recognize (and have tried) everything except the water coconuts, and I’ve never eaten tamarind as a fresh fruit.
I like the bumpy apples (also known as Atemoya in Hawaii and Custard Apple in Australia) best when they’re actually soft on the inside. I cut them in half and scoop out the insides with a spoon, spitting out the large black seeds.
Yum! Gotta go find some fruit now!
Love this post! It took me back to our explorations in the markets of Singapore, Bangkok, and Malaysia. I couldn’t get enough bumpy apple (also heard it referred to as “custard apple”) and rambutan (which we think looks like Sputnik). Sampling local fruits, even the sketchy ones like durian, is one of my favorite parts of travel.
I also adore fruit and also food markets, so it is a wonderful double. In SE Asia, the range is staggering and the mood of the market is part of the fun. Rambutans are a pet favourite and some of the fruit juiced (have to watch that they don’t add water or ice though) is so sweet.
While in Vietnam last month, I visited a fruit orchard in the Mekong Delta. Coconut is my favorite. Chicken that I am, I avoided the Durian. Wish I had carried a copy of this post with me. It’s very hard understanding all of these exotic fruits.
@donna – it took me 2 years in Asia to finally try it – well worth the wait…ha!
@mark – Actually in HCMC you can drink the water and have the ice in the majority of restaurants – it’s filtered. I had a mango shake there with ice practically daily! A rare fact that people dont know about HCMC.
@sonia – rambutan as sputnik…I love it!
@nora – yeah – I never new you could eat tamarind as a fruit either, but it was really yummy!
Great post. I love trying new fruits too.
My favorite sightseeing in any city or village is to visit their local market. I love the bargaining and the local crowd along with the many colorful fruits and vegetables. Its always cheaper to buy at the local market than in any shop.
You placed photos of two of my favorite fruits too, Rambutan, and Tamarind.
Tamarind is actually used here in Jeddah in so many ways. They eat it as something to nibble on the salted packed ones, in Ramadan its a popular fruit drink, they love using it as the marinate sauce with backed fish or just a s a side sauce beside fried fish with black rice ( sayadiah) its so amazing.
Lilliy K.
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Some of these fruits I haven’t seen, but I would like to try it.
I broke out in a rash just looking at a picture of the Rambutan – severely allergic. Wish I wasn’t because they’re so delicious! Durian? Never quite got up the courage. Would like to try the crazy looking coconut, though. Think my favorite exotic fruit is Snakefruit from Bali.
The fruit in SE Asia is awesome. There were so many natural foods and fruit to eat I never knew existed before.
The “Bumpy Apples” are my favorite and could be the one single object I miss most about Vietnam. I loved it so much I brought it into work and my co-workers used to tell me that eating it would give me pimples. At first I hesitated, but then I realized as much as I really dislike getting huge pimples, especially on my nose =(, eating this fruit was freakin worth it.
That’s how much I love mang cau.
I love to read all of your entries about VietNam. Im Vietnamese and now living in USA. That’s funny and very lovely. Thanks a lot !
@Huong – thanks so much – I’m glad you are enjoying my take on your country! I really did love it there, The culture is so different from my own (American); every day there was interesting and usually included some sort of revelation such as “I can’t believe they do THAT!”