A Fruitful Country

One thing I envy about the Vietnamese is their access to fresh, tropical fruits. They have many different types of fruits here that are not available in the United States. Here is a short guide to the fruits we've encountered so far:

Mangosteen & Rambutan (left and right, respectively)

Many of us have encountered mangosteen for the first time here in Vietnam. The fruit has a rubbery, dark purple outer rind which encases a soft, white, segmented fruit inside. Mangosteen has a sweet and sourish taste, and we all pretty much went ga-ga over how good it was. Its Vietnamese name is 'mang cut.'

Rambutan is ubiquitous here in Vietnam. Our hotel provides us with a fresh bunch of rambutan as a part of their daily fruit rotational. We have dubbed it 'the furry fruit' because of its appearance. In appearance, the edible fruit looks similar to lychee and longan. It is more chewy and less juicy than lychee, and the pit inside has a wooden texture, like a small mango pit. It is called 'chom chom' in Vietnamese.


Langsat is another fruit unique to Southeast Asia, and I've never seen it before in the states (not even at Asian groceries). The fruit comes in bunches attached to a small branch, almost like a mutated corn. Although it looks somewhat similar to longan, there are several distinctive differences. First, langsat is soft while longan's outer peel is stiff and scaly. Second, the taste is completely different. Langsat tastes like grapefruit, and its pits are bitter when bitten into. A Vietnamese friend taught me how to eat langsat, or bon bon as it's called in Vietnamese: 'Massage' the langsat with your hand to make it easier to peel and sweeter. (Image courtesy of google image search)

When you walk around the streets bordering Hue's citadel walls, you see many women and men squatting on the ground by piles of longan. Longan literally means 'dragon eye' in Chinese. It is a small, round, translucent fruit when peeled, encasing a round, black shiny pit. The Vietnamese spelling is 'long nhan.'

When we visited a traditional Vietnamese garden house as part of our tour of Hue, our gracious hostess served us this fruit from her garden. I don't know yet what this fruit is. It looks like a tiny cherry or plum, and has a slight bitter taste and translucent flesh.

Jackfruit was another fruit grown in the Vietnamese garden. It can grow up to huge sizes, and you can see many fruit venders selling peeled jackfruit. It is called 'mit' in Vietnamese.

We have dragonfruit every morning as part of our hotel breakfast buffet spread. The fruit is one of the most recognizable here, with its bright pink rind and dragon-snout shape. It uniquely grows on a long, cactus-like hanging vine. The flesh inside is white with tiny black edible seeds, and has a refreshing, albeit slightly bland, taste. Here in Vietnam it is called 'thanh long.'
(Thanks to Wikipedia for the Vietnamese names of some of the fruit)