THAI FRUITS

Thailand seems to have an endless variety of exotic fruits.  I've been trying a few "new" (for me) fruits here and there — usually we buy a can at the supermarket as I'm usually "afraid" of the appearance of the raw versions.  As I become accustomed to the taste of the canned versions, I'll try the raw ones.  So far, I've become a BIG fan of lynchee and also like longans.  Yesterday, I was offered some freshly-picked rambutan which I liked well enough — we have a can in the fridge (rambutan "stuffed with pineapple") that I'll try later today.

Grocery shopping — whether it's at an open-air market or an indoor variety — is an interesting affair as Tim doesn't know what many of the local fruits are.  On my previous visit in December/January, I found I liked the "tiger fruit" served during one of my guided tours but the plant variety looks very "frightening".  And I have yet to convince Tim to let me buy a durien so I can taste this infamously foul-smelling but sweet-tasting fruit (it smells so bad that many businesses and even some entire countries ban it's sale and possession).

Of course, there are the "common" fruits such as watermelon, pineapple, and coconut.  All of these taste much better than they do in the States, especially the pineapple (which, oddly enough, I'm not eating very much of yet).