Varieties of fruits from Thailand
Curiosity is inherent in a person and it manifests itself in so many things. The search for something new gives a lot of experience, knowledge, and sometimes unforeseen surprises. With the opportunity to travel to different countries, a great opportunity has opened up to learn not only the life and culture of other people, but also their products. Residents of Europe with amazement taste what is brought from Asia and other continents. The fruits of Thailand are of particular interest, because they are different from other varieties and are something unknown, interesting, and, of course, very useful, so it is important to learn more about them.
Peculiarities
Thailand is an amazing country that amazes tourists with the originality of its culture, which is very different from the European part of the world. Tourists often go to this country on vacation, as there are excellent beaches and a mild climate. Thanks to the bright but not scorching sun and frequent rains, Thailand is rich in a wide variety of fruits that can be easily bought at every corner. The cost of any delicacies, for which our resident at home will give a lot of money, will be very small here.
Loyal pricing policy is not accidental, because the harvests in the country are very high and they are harvested two to three times a year. In this regard, there is another distinguishing feature of fruits from Thailand: they do not have any chemical additives in their composition, because even without them they grow perfectly, ripen on time and do not get sick.
Thai fruits are known all over the world and are in demand, because their taste and useful qualities can hardly be overestimated.
Of course, Thai food is unusual for tourists, especially if the trip is for the first time, but Thais eat exotic dishes daily, not considering them to be something atypical. Thai chefs and culinary specialists know a huge number of recipes in which you can use fruits., and the most delicious of them are taken over by masters from all over the world and cooked in the most expensive restaurants, asking crazy money for a portion. If you want to see everything with your own eyes, try all the variety of food and healthy fruits, you should visit this amazing country.
If we talk about the fruits themselves, which grow in Asia, then they contain a large amount of vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to health, in addition, some can be used as a therapeutic drug, whose effect has been proven by many generations. Thais eat not only ripe, but also unripe fruit pulp, which is combined with a wide variety of dishes. A feature of this country are mini-markets and shops, which are located on every street, where they sell not only fruits and vegetables, but also ready-made juices, smoothies, cuts and soups - you can try them right on the street.
Since fruits are exotic for tourists, it is important to consume them in moderation so as not to get digestive problems due to the consumption of a large amount of unfamiliar food.
Another feature of the new food can be non-traditional taste sensations that arise when tasting a particular fruit.If you want to enjoy food in the comfort of your room, you should prepare for eating in advance by watching a video of exactly how certain fruits are cleaned and eaten, because Thai delicacies have a number of features.
By visiting Thailand, you can get a number of important discoveries for yourself:
- new knowledge about the culture and traditions of another nation;
- new taste sensations from food in Thailand;
- acquaintance with all the exotic fruits of the country at a low cost;
- the opportunity to learn some tricks of recipes and cook them at home;
- a chance to bring some exotic home and pamper your loved ones.
To make the trip pleasant, and the taste sensations from new food leave unforgettable emotions, you need to read in advance about all the fruits that are found in this country: about their benefits, effects on the human body, methods of cleaning, cutting and eating - then every day in this country will be full of surprises and enjoyment.
Titles and descriptions
Since the variety of fruits in Thailand will not leave anyone indifferent, it is worth learning more about the most popular of them.
- durian - is considered one of the most delicious delicacies in the country, but it has a very strong fetid smell, therefore it is not allowed to transport and even eat where there is a large crowd of people. The trees where these fruits grow are very tall, some of them reach 50 meters. Thailand is famous for its large species diversity of durian, but not all of them are suitable for human consumption. There are only 9 varieties that do not pose a threat to human health. The fruit is also majestic because its weight can reach four kilograms.The appearance is also unusual: the fruit is prickly on the outside, and the pulp is located in the shell, through which it can be difficult to get through. The color of durian is yellow-green.
- dragon fruit - pitahaya - this is an interesting-looking fruit: externally, the color is pink, and inside it has white contents with black seeds. Despite all the mystery, the taste is very mediocre, and often there are almost none, because the Thais themselves add lime juice while taking pitahaya. The most popular use of this fruit is the production of drinks, smoothies and cocktails, in which sugar must be added. The demand for pitahaya is that it has a small amount of calories, and therefore contributes to weight loss. In addition, this product is endowed with a large number of useful substances, the seeds have a beneficial effect on vision, and the pulp becomes an excellent raw material for the preparation of remedies that help with gastrointestinal problems.
The process of eating pitaya consists in dividing the fruit in half, peeling and cutting into slices.
- Mango - a fruit from Thailand, which has gained worldwide popularity and occupies a leading position in exports from the country. All this is due to the excellent taste, tenderness and juiciness of these fruits. At home, you can find a fairly large species diversity of this fruit, but, unlike durian, all mango fruits are suitable for consumption. An interesting fact is that this delicacy is low in calories, although it tastes very sweet. Due to the great popularity of mango, Thais prepare salads, desserts from it, add it to cocktails, yogurts.Due to the presence of useful properties, this product has also found its application in cosmetology: for example, you can see shampoos, creams and other products, where this fruit will be in the composition. Thailand has its own traditions of cutting and peeling the fruit, for which the peel is cut in vertical lines, affecting the pulp, after which horizontal lines are made, which in total gives cubes that are convenient to cut into a plate.
- Longan - This is a berry that tastes like our melon. It is very tasty, but it is important to know the measure, consuming no more than 10 berries, otherwise you can feel the deterioration. Outwardly, the longan is covered with a hard shell, but it is quite easy to peel it. The pulp inside is dense, but not hard, in the middle there is a seed that cannot be eaten, because it is poisonous. To choose the right fruit, you should carefully examine the berry, feel its peel, which should be rough, not have bumps, dents and spots.
- Rambutan is a hairy exotic fruit that grows in Thailand. This fruit is extremely popular because it has a pleasant taste, low calorie content; it is easy to clean and eat. To buy this shaggy fruit, you need to qualitatively inspect the hairs, which should be red-green, alive, without signs of aging, spoilage or black spots. The process of peeling the peel consists in making an incision in a circle and a slight pressure on the fruit. Inside there is also a bone that cannot be eaten. Everyone has their own taste qualities, therefore there is no single description of what this shaggy fruit tastes like, although they note its certain similarity with grapes.
- A pineapple - is a popular delicacy in Thailand due to its pleasant taste and low cost.Pineapples bear fruit all year round, so you can always buy them at a low price. When buying this fruit, you can spend a little and immediately order cleaning and it will be right, because the Thais know how to carry out this procedure correctly, removing all unnecessary and not cutting off anything edible. All over the world, this fruit is valuable for the presence of a substance that helps speed up the metabolism, which allows you to lose weight faster.
To choose a ripe pineapple, you should pay attention to its skin: it should be a little soft, but if you get a green fruit, it doesn’t matter, you just need to wait a bit and the fruit will be ready to eat.
- mangosteen - This is a purple small fruit, inside of which white slices “hide”, which have a delicate and pleasant taste with hints of sourness. In each slice there is a seed unsuitable for eating. You need to cut the mangosteen by analogy with rambutan, cutting in a circle. When choosing a fruit, it is important that it is not hard, but at the same time not too soft. It is best to use mangosteen that has just been harvested: this is how you can get all the benefits of the fruit.
- Banana - the most famous fruit, which is familiar to everyone since childhood. In Thailand, they grow abundantly and year-round, because their cost is almost always minimal. At home, this delicacy differs greatly in taste from what is brought to the same Russia, therefore connoisseurs of this fruit are simply obliged to visit Thailand and treat themselves to real bananas. These fruits in the composition have a large amount of starch and potassium, therefore they saturate very quickly and you should not eat too much of them.When buying these fruits, you should look at the peel: if it is yellow, then the banana will not be stored for a long time, you need to eat it in a day or two, but if you need to keep them longer, then it is better to take green fruits that ripen themselves.
- Guava - delicious, but bland fruit. There are two varieties: with pink and green flesh. The first is tastier and sweeter, for other cases, Thais use a marinade, after which the fruit becomes sweeter and more crunchy. Guava is popular for preparing a variety of sauces and drinks, it is eaten fresh and pickled, and also used in everyday life as an air flavoring or an odor absorber in the refrigerator.
- Lychee - extremely popular at home, not a single dish or drink can do without it. Lychee looks like a longan, has a pink tint, a pleasant smell, and inside is a jelly-like transparent substance and a bone that should not be eaten. Unlike similar ones, in this case it is worth noting the great sweetness of the fruit and the heady aroma. Due to the presence of vitamin B, phosphorus, proteins, iron and pectin, after eating lychee, a person's mood improves.
- Chompu apple - is a favorite fruit of children, as it has a pleasant taste, does not need to be peeled and does not contain seeds. The shape of these apples is pear-shaped, and the skin color is pink. Thanks to the pulp, which has a dense texture and white or pink color, you can quench your thirst on a hot day. When choosing a fruit, it is worth evaluating its color: it is undesirable to choose a dark color, it will not have the proper level of sugar, which will affect the taste.
- Jackfruit - the fruit, according to external indicators, is very similar to durian, but has much larger dimensions.Often, jackfruit weighs about 40 kilograms, unlike durian, whose maximum is 4 kg. There are a lot of trees with these fruits in Thailand, so you should be careful and not pass under them so as not to get hit on the head by a heavy, albeit exotic fruit for our person. Jackfruit is very popular in Thailand due to its size, which makes it possible to get a lot of pulp, the taste of which is very similar to our apples. The method of preparation usually comes down to pickling in sugar syrup, but you can also make balls from fresh fruit, which are sold in any street stall.
- passion fruit - This is a fruit popular in Thailand, which is rarely seen in Russia due to the rapid deterioration of the product and poor conditions for transportation. This fruit is also famous for its aroma, due to which it is added to various cosmetics. The pulp is under a thick skin and has a delicate and delicate taste.
At home, this fruit is eaten with a spoon, cutting the passion fruit into two parts. Juices, smoothies, fresh juices, cocktails and desserts are prepared from this fruit.
- pomelo - a yellow-orange fruit, which at home reaches 30 cm in diameter and can weigh up to 10 kilograms. The taste is pleasant, sweet, but there is a slight bitterness. The fruit is valuable for the abundance of vitamins and nutrients that are important for people of different age groups.
- Salak - an exotic fruit that is dressed in a peel similar to snake skin. Inside the Baltic herring, the flesh is white with strawberry and sea buckthorn flavors and a hint of walnut. It is the original taste that has become the very thing that makes this fruit so popular.
- Langsat - in all respects it is similar to lychee and longan, it grows on trees in clusters.Langsat is a berry that hides in a shell, and its inner part consists of slices, in which there are one or two seeds. Unlike the aforementioned crops, it is rather tart on the palate, reminiscent of very sweet grapes mixed with tangerine and lemon. Thais use langsat for a variety of dishes, but most often it is served with meat and in salads. The residents themselves try to consume more of this fruit, as it helps to strengthen the immune system and resist diseases.
- Coconut - is the most favorite fruit of Thailand. Locals eat it in a wide variety of forms: fried, pickled, baked, cheese, as an addition to meat and fish, as part of soup, sauce and more. Such popularity is associated not only with a pleasant taste, but also with the huge positive properties that coconut has. The liquid that is inside - the so-called coconut milk - is very similar to human plasma, because in wartime it was used as an aid in blood transfusions. Despite such popularity and the presence of useful properties, the pricing policy for this fruit remains stable: it is not expensive, and therefore is in demand throughout the year, as the harvest goes on all the time.
- bail - This is an unusual fruit, which is also called a stone apple, because getting to the pulp is problematic. The Thais use a special technique for this. Unlike all previous fruits, bail is not consumed fresh, it serves as the basis for making teas.
If the pulp is dried, then it can be added to ice cream, jam, jam, and also to salad.
- carambola - a very interesting-looking fruit that looks like a five-pointed star.Despite the bright yellow color and attractive appearance, the taste of the fruit is completely different: it is unsweetened and more like a vegetable. The main purpose of carambola is the decoration of confectionery, salads and more.
- Mafai - Another representative similar to longan, rambutan and langsat. Mafai are small yellow-orange berries that hang in clusters on branches while in a thin shell. The pulp has a sweet taste and a slight sourness. It is very similar in texture to grapes. Mafai bears fruit almost the whole year, depending on where exactly it grows.
- noina - these are fruits that look like cones, only large in size. They even have a coniferous aroma, there are scales and a green color of the peel. Inside, the noina is tender and sweet, with a hint of vanilla and coniferous aroma. It is difficult to remove the skin of the fetus, because the juice should not be allowed to flow, which can leave a burn if it gets on the mucous membrane. The process of consumption is also different: you need to eat noina with a spoon, removing the bones that are inside the fruit.
The popularity of the fruit is associated with its tonic effect and the ability to improve a person's mood.
- Noni - a special fruit that is not sold on the shelves of shops or stalls, they are grown in specialized closed plantations. Healing juice is prepared from noni, which is very bitter in taste, but has a huge number of useful properties. It can be both drunk and used externally to treat wounds and burns.
- Cherimoya - This is an exotic fruit that has an original appearance, resembling a nut in green scales. Both the indigenous people themselves and tourists love cherimoya for its pleasant and tender pulp, which resembles custard.When using it, you should be careful, because inside there are a large number of bones that cannot be eaten.
- Papaya - a fruit from Thailand, which has a neutral taste and great benefits for the body. It is this fruit that is considered necessary for consumption by children under one year old as complementary foods. If you need to choose a good papaya, then you should pay attention to the skin, the color of which should be yellow with small green areas.
Green papaya is an artificially bred variety that is used in Thailand for a variety of salads.
- Santol - a fruit that children love very much because of its soft and pleasant taste. Outwardly, santol looks like an apple, its color is beige, and the flesh is white and looks like slices. It is similar in taste to mangosteen, but has a weaker aroma. Inside the lobules there are bones that are difficult to separate from the pulp, which has become the reason for the low popularity of santol at home.
- sapodilla - a fruit that looks like a potato, but radically different in taste. The brown skin on the outside makes the fruit unsightly, but the creamy tender flesh cannot leave anyone indifferent. The sweet taste is complemented by the aroma of coffee beans and dates.
- Tamarillo - This is an exotic fruit that looks like a tomato. The red fruit with a dense skin has a size of about five centimeters. You can only eat the pulp, which has a sweet and sour taste and resembles a mixture of tomatoes and currants.
Tomarillo is valuable for a rich set of trace elements and vitamins, thanks to which it is often used as a remedy, which is excellent for migraines.
- Tamarind - is a legume, has the appearance of a long pod in which the fruits are located.Tamarind is not eaten fresh, it is added to drinks, desserts, sauces, seasonings.
- Watermelon - a fruit familiar to everyone, which in Thailand has a different taste, and sometimes a look. For Russia, watermelons with red pulp are the most common, and in Thailand there are varieties with a yellow and greenish middle. The size of watermelons in this country is small, so it is not difficult to carry them with you and on a hot day you can easily quench your thirst. Such a delicacy is inexpensive, everyone can afford it.
Thailand is rich in a wide variety of fruits and tourists who travel to this country for the first time should be familiar with them in order to be able to taste real delicacies and please themselves with not only tasty, but also healthy food.
Season by month
To know which fruits will be relevant in Thailand in a given month, you should stock up on knowledge in advance about how they grow and when they bear fruit. There are a number of fruits that are year-round in the country, which means you can enjoy them at any time of the year, but not all fruits of the country belong to these. So, jackfruit is harvested between March and June, so the end of spring and the beginning of summer are the best times to travel to Thailand to taste this interesting product. Almost the same ripening time is for mangoes, which can be bought fresh between March and May.
This indicates the spring nature of the ripening of these fruits.
A more summery crop is the longan, which sings from June to September, allowing locals and tourists alike to get the product in abundance.The lychee is a crop that only gives birth two months a year, from May to June, so fans of this fruit should carefully choose the time of their trip to Thailand. Mangosteen is also among those fruits that actively ripen from spring to late summer. You can enjoy mangosteen from May to August. Rambutan has almost the same fruit readiness for consumption, but often the season drags on until the end of September, and in October it is already completely over.
The fruits that bear fruit almost the entire season and can often be found on store shelves include papaya, which can be obtained all year round, except for three months of summer. The situation is similar with pineapples, which are popular both among the local population and in the tourist environment. You can try pineapple on any day of the week of every month, but from August to October in some areas the trees stop bearing fruit.
As in our latitudes, watermelon is a purely summer fruit, which actively ripens from May to the end of September.
It was at this time in Thailand that the highest temperature is observed, from which you can escape not only with soft drinks, but also with juicy watermelons. Asia is rich in a wide variety of fruits, which for us may be familiar for a long time or completely incomprehensible and exotic. The same strawberries can be found here in November and December, when severe frosts and winter are already in our latitudes. Plum bears fruit in April and May, while our trees are just beginning to come to life after winter and bloom. The abundance of tasty and healthy food, beautiful nature and non-traditional life for a European make Asia, and, in particular, Thailand, a place of active tourism.In order for the rest to be informative and good, it is important to carefully prepare for it.
Is it possible to export fruits from Thailand?
When going to a new state, especially such an exotic one as Thailand, there is a desire to bring something from there as a keepsake. Many prefer souvenirs for this, but there are also true connoisseurs of exotic and healthy lifestyles. The Thais do not put any bans on the export of fruits from their country, because they are fully provided with them and are not afraid to lose most of the crop. To transport certain fruits on an airplane, you need to know the conditions of storage, transportation and packaging in order to bring fresh fruit home, and not crush it on the way.
Despite an open policy regarding products, Thailand has certain rules and laws for the importation of such baggage into its country. It is allowed to transport those exotic fruits that are not subject to quarantine or some other ban, because in this case it will not be possible to take such a load with you. Import into Russia with such baggage is allowed if:
- each fruit is properly packaged, for which it is better to use the help of professionals;
- the fruits are packed in a specialized plastic container, which can be easily bought at any Thai supermarket;
- pack the plastic container in a bag to hide it from obvious inspection by the screeners at the airport, which will help to avoid unnecessary problems.
Such plastic containers can be checked in as the main baggage, but you can keep it with you, which will be considered as hand luggage, which can be transported inside the cabin.If you follow all the above rules and do not collect large stocks of exotic fruits, you can easily pass the control and transport the fruits and then enjoy the memories of a paradise vacation by eating real Thai fruits.
How to eat them?
Since Thailand is considered the birthplace of a large number of exotic fruits, it is important to know not only their names, get acquainted with their appearance and read about their taste and benefits, but also understand exactly how to eat them. There are fruits that we have known for a long time and there are no difficulties with their use, for example, bananas or watermelons; but there are more original fruits with which you have to rack your brains, not knowing the ritual of eating them.
To clean the herring, one cannot do without a knife, which will have to do painstaking work to remove the dense peel, which also has thorns.
The pulp of the fruit is light and has two or three lobules with a bone inside, which cannot be eaten. To make the cleaning process go faster, it is worth buying fresh herring, because after storage it becomes even more difficult to clean it. Longan has a dense, but thin peel, which must be pry off and removed from the pulp. This fruit is easy to peel, and pretty soon you can get to the pulp, which is almost transparent and tastes like a plum. Sapodilla is peeled easily, like a potato, by removing the skin. The pulp that remains after peeling resembles a persimmon or pear, but inside there are two rather large bones.
It is worth noting the excellent taste of the fruit, but there is also a minus: it deteriorates very quickly. Mangosteen is also cleaned with a knife, so as to get to the pulp.Inside, the mangosteen looks like white slices, inside of which are bones unsuitable for consumption. For a tourist, the fruit may seem incomprehensible, so the impressions may vary. Pitahaya can be eaten in two ways: the first involves dividing the fruit into two parts and eating the contents with a spoon, and the second is cutting the pulp into rings after the skin is removed. Pitahaya attracts tourists with external data, beautiful bright colors and original content, but its taste is far from external data.
Fruits that are difficult to peel, Thais usually sell already peeled, and they do it at a high professional level.
Those who want to try everything on their own experience need to be patient, didactic literature and relevant videos on cleaning and preparing fruits for eating. There are a lot of options for how Thais use exotic fruits for Europeans: adding them to main dishes, desserts, meat and fish, making cocktails, yoghurts, drinks and much more, which makes the inhabitants of this country marvel.
Interesting and delicious fruits from Thailand in the video below.