Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Hawaii: The Exotic Fruit!

Coconut

First you get someone to open a coconut for you.


Then you pose pretending to whack open the coconut.

And then you have a coconut!

No but seriously opening coconuts with the machete was loads of fun. I felt like an authentic Hawaiian. We usually ate one or two coconuts per day between the three of us. They had a special tool to twist through the outer skin to make a hole for pouring out the coconut milk. Then you put it on the wood and WHACK WHACK WHACK and pretty soon there's a sizable crack and it splits!

The age of the coconut determines the consistency of the fruit inside. For instance, a younger coconut will have tasty water but not much meat, just a flimsy membrane to slurp up in one or two bites. Older coconuts have meat that's a little mushy or hard as candy. With the more solid ones, we made coconut fries:





Jackfruit



Jeni's friend Wade picked this ripe one off of Anne's tree, sliced it open, and...


Voila! You take out one of the little pods, remove the seed, and eat it. It has a smooth, slimy texture and is quite chewy. Jeni says it takes like juicyfruit bubblegum. With the extremely potent smell and peculiar taste, I didn't particularly love it...
(photo borrowed from http://www.skyfieldtropical.com/encyclopedia/images/id,32/)


This is what they look like on the tree. They're HUGE, bowling ball sized or bigger. They can sell for about $15 or $30 bucks depending on the size.
(photo borrowed from http://lycheefruitstore.com/pictures/100_0023.jpg)



Rambutan

Mom thought this was a sea urchin when she first saw the picture.


But really it's a dragon egg! It tastes like lychee.

We also ate lots of lychee, strawberry guavas, guavas, pineapple, and apple bananas. It's fun finding fruit along the side of the road and eating it.

5 comments:

  1. that's soo exciting!! I hope you didn't eat anything poisonous.

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  2. Hello Amber!

    Thanks for sharing with your followers these wonderful pictures of your Hawaii adventure with your sister and Jeni Reiko. How colorful and exotic a scene it makes! I wonder what island you were on. Why no pictures of the clothing optional beach goers, or at least the black sand? (Just being curmudgeonly). I greatly admired the exotic fruits, the lesson on how to harvest a coconut, climb a banyan tree, and taste green fluids at a local market. (I have cooked in a tent before, but it was a tiny one). I can totally understand why some people choose to live in Hawaii indefinitely. Those would be people that don't want to be president, or don't Google or do email, I suppose. Anyway, it looks like you'll have something to write in your "what I did this summer" essay when you get back to banana slug country. Also, I'm getting used to your hair style. On you, everything looks cute.

    Love from Grandad

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  3. Amber, you should visit Asian markets. You can find these fruits there. I've never had it because up in northeastern China we don't have them, but they are rather popular in southeastern China. Are these fruits native to Hawaii or other tropical parts of the world?

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