Writing — Food & Photography
Check Out This Weirdo Fruit
What is a Rambutan and what the heck do you do with it?
Since coming to Trinidad & Tobago I’ve encountered a wealth of strange fruits and vegetables I never saw before in my life. While I’m not too adventurous with trying out different kinds of weird meat (rats, snakes, beaver, no thank you) I will try almost any kind of weird fruit or vegetable.
The other day my husband and I drove into Port-of-Spain to visit his brother and his brother’s wife, who have a lot of expertise when it comes to produce here in TT. It’s their business to know. Literally, that’s their business. They have a small but hugely popular produce market they’ve run for years.
As we stood around contemplating more commonplace things like mangos and avocados, my sister-in-law held up this weird looking thing I’d only seen before in passing.
“Give it a try,” she offered.
Have to say, it’s strangeness gave me pause, but my brother-in-law quickly piped in “it tastes sweet.”
They know how to press my buttons, knowing full well I have a weakness for sweet-tasting things.
However, I looked over just in time to see an older lady friend of theirs, who was sitting comfortable nearby in the afternoon shade of a large canopy, scrunch up her nose.
“I don’t like it,” she said.
This again gave me pause, but in the end the enticement of tasting something sweet won out. Oh yes, they do know how to get me.
My sister-in-law cut the thing in half, removed the top half and handed it to me. I hesitated at the appearance of the shiny gelatinous flesh and gave it a little sniff. It didn’t smell bad, so I brought it to my mouth to taste.
It was indeed sweet, so I was happy about that, but the consistency was another matter — a bit slimy, but a firm kind of slimy, if there is such a thing — like a firm Jell-O.
I tried to bite at it but the flesh clung to the pit like mad. Gnawing at the thing, I was starting to understand why the older lady had scrunched up her face. This thing was really weird.
“Just pop the whole thing in your mouth,” someone said.
So I did. Never in my life have I had a human eyeball in my mouth, but I have a feeling the sensation would be similar.
Even in my mouth though, it still took a lot of tongue and teeth maneuvering to try and work the flesh off the pit. I chewed at it for a while and succeeded in getting some of it off but not all.
“You can spit out the pit.” They pointed to a small empty cardboard box doubling as a trash. I did and gave my mouth a little rest.
All in all though, I have to say it was a positive experience. The flavor saves the rambutan from it’s strange look. It really is quite sweet and pleasant and is close in taste, I believe, to a peeled grape. And so, my sister-in-law gave me a small bag of the rambutan to take home.
Later, when I was looking up info on this weird fruit they call the rambutan, I encountered this helpful informational post on WikiHow, “How to Eat a Rambutan: 10 Steps (with Pictures)”, which advised cutting away the flesh from the pit with a sharp paring knife. That seemed like a great idea so I tried it myself.
Have to say, it’s not as easy as they made it look. Hubby just sharpened our most-used small kitchen knife and I still had trouble getting the flesh off the pit.
It proved to be a labor of love, just like a lot of things in life, eh?
I finished cutting it up, ate a bit and gave some to hubby. I saved the rest to my stock pile of freshly cut-up fruit I keep in the fridge for snacking or to make smoothies and other drinks. Will try and add some next time.
After that, it was time for my Rude Boy.
If you’re thinking that the rambutan looks similar to a lychee you would be thinking correctly as they are related. Also, comparing the taste to a peeled grape was pretty accurate as it turns out — a lot of people online have compared it to eating a grape.
Have you tried the rambutan?
More info on this weird fruit:
- Here’s a nice write-up in Parade: “What the Heck Is a Rambutan and How Do You Eat It?”.
- Like most fruit, the rambutan has many health benefits, per this WebMD article: “Health Benefits of Rambutan”. Nice!
- I was wise to consider adding it to my smoothie, as I saw several enticing recipes online, including recipes for smoothies and rambutan cocktails… interesting!
Oh, but you simply must check out this amazing video of a popular YouTuber harvesting rambutan and employing it in tasty cuisine — the highlight is a sweet-looking dessert of rambutan, fresh sweet cream and even chocolate sprinkles! Wow. This vid alone changed my thinking about the rambutan a lot!
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