Thailand’s “Hairy Fruit”

Thailand is well-known for its wide variety of fresh, exotic fruit and this strange looking beast is one of the many that are available from the local vendors.  I have been walking by our neighbourhood fruit vendors since we arrived and have seen stacks of these weird, hairy things looking back at me from the shelves.   It could be an organism from the bottom of the ocean but nope, it’s a popular fruit that becomes available during the rainy season.  After checking it out online to find out what they are, I went for a stroll and asked for one kilogram of them (for just over $1).  OMG…the woman grabbed a plastic bag and started filling it.  I soon realized that one kilogram of these things is a hell of a lot so I halved my order and still ended up with quite a few!

The rambutan is pretty tasty.  To eat them, you just have to cut around the outer skin and slip out the inner fruit. And it actually does slip out!  I read that you can hold them with two hands and twist the skin in opposite directions to remove it but I didn’t have any luck with this method!  To me, it looked and tasted like a giant grape, but with a firm texture. The strange thing about them is the “hairs” that stick out from all over the surface.  They definitely give them an exotic look!

So our new experiences continue.  There are still a lot of very strange looking fruits and vegetables waiting for their turn in our kitchen.  Trying all these different foods is one of the great parts of living in a new country.