Fruity Food Friday: Not Exactly What You’re Used To

Fruity Food Friday: Not Exactly What You’re Used To

Posted on 28. Aug, 2009 by April in food, Thailand

As I’ve said before, fruit is very plentiful in Thailand. Here are some fruits that sound familiar but look a little different:

1. Oranges

Green Oranges

Green Oranges

In English, orange is the word for the color orange and the fruit with the same color. Interestingly, the same is true in Thai even though the fruit is green on the outside! While we might see some imported orange oranges around here, we mostly see little green ones. While they don’t look appealing on the outside, the inside is almost like a tangerine. They’re tasty little guys :)

2. Cantaloupe

Oblong Cantaloupe

Oblong Cantaloupe

We like to ask our local fruit man how to say the different fruits in Thai. We’ve got most of them down now. We got off easy with cantaloupe. They use the same word (although pronounced cant-a-loop). It looks mostly the same here, it just has more of an oblong shape. The flavor is a little more mild than what we’ve had in the US. And the texture may be a little closer to a honeydew melon.

3. Mangoes

Most of the mangoes we eat in the US are Mexican types of mangoes. In Thailand you won’t see the rounder reddish mangoes. Here they are yellow or green. During hot(test) season we get the amazing, juicy, ripe yellow mangoes. They are especially popular sliced over sticky rice with coconut milk (YUM!). But mangoes are used in all stages of ripeness. Green mangoes are turned into salads or dipped in sugar. And I think there are a few different varieties around here, but I can’t recognize the difference between them.

Ripe Yellow Mangoes

Ripe Yellow Mangoes

4. Bananas

The Cutest Banana

The Cutest Banana

Considering all the varieties of bananas around the world, it is really a shame that Americans mostly only see one kind. There are around 20 varieties of bananas in Thailand. I’ll just tell you about three that we’ve experienced. First, there are long bananas that look similar to what we get at home but they taste sweeter. Second, there are fat, short bananas. Their skin looks more angular than cylindrical. They are very sweet and sticky and are known to be very nutritious. We were given a bunch of these that came in handy when I had my wisdom teeth out- Jason turned them into smoothies! Third are the little “finger” bananas. These are my personal favorite. They’re sweet, easy to eat, and so cute!

What’s your favorite fruit?

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6 Responses to “Fruity Food Friday: Not Exactly What You’re Used To”

  1. Sarah Jane Vine

    30. Aug, 2009

    Love this post, my favorite fruit in Thailand is Mungkut….the small purple fruit with white sections inside…if you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest you do. =) P.S. I’ll meet you when I’m in Thailand next.

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  2. Kassie

    30. Aug, 2009

    I think my favorite fruit depends on what season it is. Currently my favorite is BLUEBERRIES!!! YUM YUM. I like them on cereal, mixed into yogurt for breakfast, and if I get them in the fall (even though they’re expensive) they are SO GOOD in oatmeal. Just stir them in once you’ve microwaved the oatmeal, wait a few minutes, and its almost like blueberry cobbler for breakfast! (BTW, do they have oatmeal in Thailand? Just wondering.) There is a blueberry festival coming up next weekend and if it isn’t too far away I’m gonna try to get Tim to go with me. :) (Either that or the Marshmallow Festival! Doesn’t that sound fun?!?) :)

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  3. April

    31. Aug, 2009

    That’s so funny- I just had a dream last night about finding fresh blueberries here :) I also love fresh blueberries- we always picked them at my grandparents’ house every summer. I would just eat a whole bowl of blueberries with milk…. mmmm!
    Yes, we can find oatmeal here. I can’t say it’s real popular, though. I certainly haven’t been in the mood for it with this hot weather…
    And I have seen signs for that Marshmallow festival ever since the first year I moved to FW, but never made it there! If you go, be sure to take pictures for me. If you don’t, let’s go next year!

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  4. Dad and Mom Ruggles

    31. Aug, 2009

    We have to agree with you that blueberries are our favorite. Blueberries in our waffles, blueberries on our pancakes,and blueberry smoothies. Yum yum.And lets not forget blueberries on our ice cream.Did we mention that we like blueberries?

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  5. Cherith

    31. Aug, 2009

    I love fruit! And this post made my mouth water! lol

    But our favorite banana is from St. Lucia! They are super sweet and so good no matter how you eat them. Unfortunately, like you said, here in the US we only get one “kind” of bananas. I think St. Lucia sends their bananas to Europe. bummer, i know. I wish we would get more varieties of fruit. But then again, I can’t ever eat my fresh fruit fast enough.

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  6. April

    13. Oct, 2009

    We discovered a new banana this week- it’s sweet while it’s still green! Very tasty, but I don’t know how we’d be able to pick it out at a market.

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