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 Salak (Snake fruit)
The salak (snake fruit) has dark-brown shiny skin which is tough. Originated
from Indonesia but now also grown in Thailand and Malaysia.
The rough skin is thin and easy to peel. Inside is a light-tan firm, dry and crunchy fruit divided into three or
more lobes, usually with a single seed in the largest section.
A ripe salak is always creamy yellow
color and has a sweet acid taste rather like a pineapple. Salak is
not juicy which makes them especially convenient to peel and eat.
The fruit has the firmness of a carrot and a distinctively agreeable
flavor quite unlike any other fruit.
Recently there is another newly innovated clone, the salak pondos which can be cultivated in hydroponics method and
harvest all year round in 2 years time. This new clone is sweeter and allows
higher yield.
 Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)
Rambutan is natively grows in Malaysia and Indonesia. This hairy
fruits hang on branches on woody stalk and is round or oblong in
shape. The hairy thin and pliable skin gains it the name, which
‘rambut’ means hair in Malay. It is usually in greenish color and
will turn to yellow or red when it is ripe.
The pearly white flesh of the fruit
varies in quality and taste. A good rambutan have firm
and juicy flesh. Rambutan is usually eaten in fresh and raw or can
be added to fruit salads or made into jams.
 Langsat
Langsat comes from the same species as duku.
Langsat
fruits are always smaller and oval in the shape as compared with
duku. The skin is pale and fawn color. Langsat usually grow in 6 to
12 fruits in a single cluster and each fruits composed of a few
segments each with green and bitter seed and sourer in the
taste. The skin exudes latex or sap even when it is mature, this
makes it less welcome than duku.
 Durian (Durio zibethinus)
'King of
Fruits'. The fruit is round to elongated green to greenish bronze in
color and covered with sharp spines. It normally contains 5-6
locules, each with 1- 5 seeds embedded in custard-like aril which is
whitish-cream to orangey yellow in color.
Durian is a seasonal fruits seasonal fruit although commercial
cultivation has made it available most times of the year.
A ripe
durian produces strong smell so bad that it is prohibited in most of
the hotel and airplane in South East Asia.
Beside eaten fresh, it is also
produced into various traditional products such as durian cake,
durian ice ream.
A good durian is always creamy rich and little bitter.
 Star fruit (Averrhoea carambola)
Star fruit tree has a lot of branches thus producing a lot of water
shoots. The fruit is oval in shape with 5 ribs or angles which give
a star shape when cut. This gives it the name as star fruit. The
skin of the fruit is green when small and will turn into yellow or
orange when ripe. The flesh is always juicy and varies from sour to
sweet. Star fruit is not a seasonal fruit and can be found all year
round. It is rich in Vitamin B and C and is believed that star fruit
can lower the blood pressure.
Belimbing Assam
There is no English name for this fruit but Belimbing asam is a
little similar appearance with star fruit, only differences are the
size and taste which is smaller and sourer than star fruit. Apart
from this, Belimbing Assam is also distinguishable by its smooth,
unridged, yellowish-green skin, looking a little like a pickle.
Juicy and acidic, this fruit is used in Malaysia for making such
pickles as the Malay "sunti"; in curries; and stewed as a vegetable.
Unlike the star fruit, Belimbing assam has less market value and is
not exported. It is normally grown in the yard for home used.
Banana
There are various type of banana can be found in Malaysia all with
different name and appearance. For example Pisang mas is the short
and little banana, Pisang rastali and Pisang Tanduk are often made
into fried banana and other dining banana such as Pisang Susu,
Pisang Raja etc. Some bananas are even made into dishes together
with its stem and flowers.
Banana is available year round and it is always not expensive in
price. Banana tree has a large expanded leaves, about 2.0 m long and
50 cm wide. It has entire leaf margin and the leaf stalk elongated
to form the leaf sheath. Because of the unique fragrance produced
and the size, banana leaf is often used as wrapper to certain local
food such as Nasi Lemak and Kuih Tepung Pelita.
When buying a banana select that is slightly green, firm, and
without bruises. If the bananas have a gray tint and a dull
appearance, these have been refrigerated, preventing them from
ripening properly.
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana)
Mangosteen is round in shape and the skin is light green when it is
young and will eventually turn to reddish or dark purple when it is
ripe. It takes about 15 years to grow a mangosteen tree before it is
mature enough to produce any fruit. The flesh in the fruit is snowy
white and nicely arranged in segmental form. Each fruit will have
normally 6-10 segments inside. It is delicately tasted and soft.
There are stigmatic lobes at the bottom part of the external cortex
that shows the number of segments of the fruit and will persist
until the fruit ripens. Amazing! To eat the fruit, you have to cut
the thick but yet soft cortex. Be careful with the purple color
juice excretes from the cortex when you open it, it will stain your
cloth.
It is also called ‘the Queen of Fruits’ in Malaysia and is believe
to be cool (Ying) in nature and will neutralized the heat (Yang)
from other fruit, eg. durian, the King of the fruits. This answers
the doubt that why it is always bought when ones is buying durian.
Mangosteen is always eaten in ripen. However there are villagers eat
when it is unripe by washing away the latex produces from the unripe
skin.
Jack fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
There is proverbs in Malay : Siapa makan nangka, dia kena getah”
---- who eats the nangka (jack fruit), will be touched by the sap,
meaning that you are responsible for your own action. Name of this
fruit always gives space for imagination as it always sounds like
‘Jack’s fruit’. Jack fruit hang on a stalk from the tree trunk,
large and oblong in shape. A mature Jack fruit can reach to 30-90cm
long, 30-50cm wide and 5-8kg in weight. Therefore it can be easily
recognized among the fruit. Jack fruit has thick skin with thorns
which are not shape. The flesh is firm and yellowish with seed
encases in the fruit. It is eaten raw and the seeds can be eaten
when it is boiled. However, the flesh is also used as dish when the
fruit is unripe. There is sap produced when you cut the fruit and it
is sometimes used to capture birds by the villagers. It is normally
grown in yard in the village area.
Cempedak (Artocarpus champeden)
Many people confuse Cempedak with Jack fruit. They both look similar
from the outer skin except cempedak is smaller and with stronger
smell than jack fruit and it is a seasonal fruit. The flesh of
cempedak is softer and smaller with orangey yellow. It is eaten in
raw but more commonly deep fried.
Papaya (Carica papaya)
This is one of the non seasonal and evergreen fruits in Malaysia.
There is always a soft main trunk and tufted leaves at the top.
Papaya vary in sizes, shape, color and taste. The outer skin is
smooth and always in green color and will turn to yellow when it is
ripe. It's an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Folic Acid,
Potassium, Copper, Phosphorus, Iron and Fiber. It is excellent for
digestive.
Ciku (Manilkara achras)
Ciku looks similar to a kiwi fruit except it has smooth, non hairy
but rusty skin. Ciku is granulated and yellowish to pinkish brown in
color when it is ripe. It can be oblong or round in shape depends
on the species. Ciku found in Terengganu is always oblong and light
brownish in the flesh.
A well grown ciku can be in a size of 5 to 10cm long. Ripe ciku is
soft and sweet unlike the unripe which is hard and unpleasantly
astringent and with milky sap. It is normally eaten in fresh
although there is also fried ciku slices and jam in the market.
When the skin is peeled, the soft flesh is sliced into pieces which
often carved into decorative shapes. There are about 2 to 4 flat
oblong black and smooth seeds in the fruit.
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
Perhaps everybody will agree that watermelon is the best choice to
cure your thirst in a hot sunny day. It produces so much sweet and
pleasantly scented juice that can easy your throat in a second.
Watermelon has herbaceous stem and tendrils and creeps on the
ground. It is vary in the shape and color of the fresh. The
traditional species has light green with stripes on the skin and
passionate red in the flesh. However with the new innovation in the
cultivation, you can see watermelon in dark green skin and yellowish
or orangey yellow flesh.
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