By admin | October 19, 2009
This is a small dragon fruit field in the northern Thailand province of Phayao. Dragon fruits are seasonal, but when they’re in season I eat my larger share of them. They remind me of a kiwi fruit in their taste and the texture of their flesh with tiny black seeds throughout. The good thing is […]
By admin | October 18, 2009
While wandering around in Chiang Rai we encountered a tiny little shop specializing in homemade ice cream and sherbet. I picked santal (gratawn [à¸à¸£à¸°à¸—้à¸à¸™] in Thai) over the other interesting flavors which included durian and longan.
By admin | December 1, 2008
Ahh…the mango tree in front of my house. I still haven’t figured out how it works. The fruits are psuedo-seasonal (I guess) but they come at seemingly unrelated parts of the year and in varying sized batches. The trick is being able to time it well enough to let them grow nice and large, but […]
Here’s a strange fruit, called gratawn [à¸à¸£à¸°à¸—้à¸à¸™], but known as santol in English. A bit large, about the size of a grapefruit with the same thickness of skin, but definitely not a citrus fruit. The taste is very strange; a combination of sour, bitter, and sweet. The texture is also odd, like a thick slime. […]
While sounding weird, this dish is amazingly simple: ants mixed with coconut. In Thai called miang mod daeng sai maphrao [เมี่ยงมดà¹à¸”งใส่มะพร้าว] which literally means ‘mixed ants with coconut’. From what I hear, they collect the ants by knocking their nest out of a tree into a basket. Then they have to quickly (these ones bite) […]
By admin | March 16, 2008
This one was a hard one to find any information on. I knew it was a palm fruit, but apparently there isn’t much information on the internet about these. In Thai its called luk dtan [ลูà¸à¸•à¸²à¸¥] and I finally tracked down a possible English name: sugar palm, toddy palm, or borassus flabellifer. I would consider […]
By admin | February 15, 2008
This is an exquisite Thai dessert. Jackfruit stuffed with sweet sticky rice and covered in sweetened coconut cream (khao niaw kanun [ข้าวเหนียวขนุน]). The different jackfruit pieces also have different flavors of sticky rice in them (notice the colors?) but I’m not sure what they are. There’s not much else to say about this one except […]
By admin | February 8, 2008
To go along with the post on durians, here’s a bin of jackfruit for sale. While not as dangerous as durians, they are generally larger. A single jackfruit weighs quite a few kilos, so it is not common to purchase one for yourself. Usually, you purchase smaller bags of the fruit that has been scooped […]
By admin | February 8, 2008
Here’s a large crate of the durians I previously mentioned. The previous post didn’t show the outside so here it is. Notice the very sharp and hard spikes. Yes, people do get injured from durians. When the vendors open them they wear very thick gloves and use a huge machete. Before they open a durian […]
By admin | January 28, 2008
Pictured here is a rose apple tree. Rose apples, called chompuu [ชมพู่] in Thai, are very common when in season around here. A tasty fruit, they are very juicy with a firm flesh, but not too sweet. I have never seen them in the US. Supposedly it grows quite easily and is almost considered a […]
