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Gorgeous Balinese Fruit

Posted in Asian, Bali, Bananas, Fruit, Holidays, Travel, Tropical Fruit on July 12, 2012| 2 Comments »

A few months ago, I headed to Bali with my family and met up with my mother-in-law there for a lovely holiday. As Bali is a cheap, overseas tropical playground for Australians, there are tons of western conveniences and experiences there if that is what you are looking for but I was determined to get a “off the beaten track” view of the island. We stayed part of our time in the mountains near Ubud and the rest of the time just north of Seminyak near the ocean but both of our freestanding villas were away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Kuta. Our villa in Ubud was in the jungle overlooking rice paddies and we were stared at by villagers as we were the only foreigners in town and I loved it. I wanted to be away from the touristy bits for at least part of the time.

Every morning at both villas, we were served gorgeous tropical fruits. Made (pronounced ma-day), the cook at the villa in Ubud, would take her time to make a beautiful creation every morning and I absolutely loved it. We had mangoes, pineapple, mangosteen, papaya, rambutan, salak (snakeskin fruit) and lady finger bananas. Salak was the only fruit I’d never seen or heard of. It is a sort of triangular, brown fruit that feels like it’s covered in snakeskin, complete with scales. Unlike all the other fruits mentioned, salak isn’t juicy or squishy but sweet and crunchy with an almost chalky mouth feel. It tastes a lot like lychee or rambutan but denser and with a totally different texture.

There was this other fruit too, wish I remembered the name, a small brown and round fruit that is probably related to longans. It was lighter than a longan but had one or two little black seeds inside that were very bitter so I’d pop them in my mouth and search for the seed or else it would ruin the sweetness that was happening from the soft flesh! Very intriguing stuff.

The artistry of fruit every morning was such pure luxury and I was in awe of the talent of creating such a pretty plate for us everyday.

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Trapped at Tropical Fruit World

Posted in Australia, Drinks, Fruit, Tours, Travel, Tropical Fruit, tagged Babaco, Big Avocado, Black Sapote, Tropical Fruit World on September 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

Sadly during our stay on the Gold Coast on our holiday, the only partly sunny day we had was spent at Tropical Fruit World. Why is that sad? It’s not that it was a terrible experience or anything but we left feeling like we were trapped on a crappy tourist ride at Disneyland and it spit us out from one place to the next only to make us wait for the only thing I cared about – the fruit.

Tropical Fruit World is less than an hour south of Surfer’s Paradise on the New South Wales border. Apparently they grow the most varieties of tropical fruit in the world and it’s also used as a research centre for scientists. So with all that nerdy food stuff, I was excited to learn about different varieties of fruit that I’d never seen or eaten.

Upon arriving, you see that it’s sort of kitschy with a young female employee and someone dressed as half an avocado waving at me in front of the avocado statue (I didn’t expect anything less). There is a little retail fruit shop that sells whatever ripe tropical fruit that is available that day and it’s interesting and reasonably priced. We asked about the tour and were told that there was one leaving right away so we took advantage of it!

So off we go to hop onto an open-air bus with about 25 other people. The bus drove inside the acres and acres of tropical fruit and I was getting really excited. After a few minutes, I was annoyed because the driver was whizzing by the plants and spewing out information so fast that you barely had time to listen to all the facts much less take any clear photos of anything.

Whizzing by the lychee trees! There were dozens of varieties but I wouldn't know what the difference is since we just drove by so fast.

Our first stop was not to take a walk but to grab handfuls of raw macadamias and practice cracking the nuts and eating them. He gave us about 5 minutes before we were ushered back onto the bus. Ok, I had fun but I was hoping we’d get to see more than that. The driver actually told us that we don’t have to come since we had a pram but heck no if I was going to miss out on anything! Then we drove through more orchards and saw a lot of interesting things that I was desperate to see more clearly but was happy that I learned a few things here and there. But then, it gets worse…our next stop was at their “petting zoo”. Here, we were told to pet the kangaroos, sheep, horses and whatever else was there. I was not very interested at all and I guess it was for the kids but we stayed there a lot longer than I cared to. I took that opportunity to let my kid say hello to a kangaroo but only for a picture op.

Cracking Macadamia Nuts

Kangaroos for the Kids

Again, we were ushered off to yet another activity that had nothing to do with tropical fruits. We were going on a boat ride…to where? As we hopped onto this open-aired boat, we were all given huge hunks of bread to feed the ducks that beg alongside the boat since the actual boat ride and scenery are not that interesting. At the end of the ride, we are taken to the “island” and then we hop onto a mini steam train that we straddle! The train was fun, but again, it had nothing to do with tropical fruits and we were stuck there for longer than we cared to be. The whole time that you’re taken to pet animals and ride trains, you have NO idea where you are and how to get out. I had lost all sense of direction and positioning.

Finally, they asked how many people didn’t taste fruit yet and we raised our hands and they ushered a few of us out to yet another waiting bus that plopped us back to “reception”. Once we got to reception, we were told that we were too late for this tasting and that we would have to wait for the next one in over an hour!! Although annoyed, by that time we needed a break so we took the time to eat lunch and sit in the a/c. Another family from Adelaide were also made to wait and were very angry because like me, that’s all they came for (to taste fruit) and they couldn’t believe that they had been taken to all this other shit and had to wait for this tasting.

Finally the Fruit Tasting

The cafe there is very interesting. They serve some very interesting smoothies using really exotic tropical fruit that they grow and they also make interesting ice cream flavours. What was amazing was that our lunch was the BEST part of the day! Perhaps because both of us had such low expectations for the food (food at touristy places are often sooo average), we were amazed when my husband’s smoked salmon sandwich was huge and fresh with generous lashings of salmon and avocado and my chicken wrap was juicy and satisfying. We ordered two interesting drinks – Babaco (Champagne fruit) ice cream float and Black Sapote (chocolate fruit) smoothie.

Thank Goodness for the Yummy Drinks

On our way out, we found a walking path along dozens of interesting varieties of mangoes and honestly, that was much more relaxing and informative than most of that tour and the walk was free. We took a picture of the giant avocado and laughed about our experience and were thankful that I was able to get in for free (had a voucher) or else we would’ve felt the sting of wasting so much money!

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Eating Along Steve Irwin Way

Posted in Australia, Drinks, Fruit, Holidays, Travel, Tropical Fruit, tagged australia zoo, glasshouse mountains highway, lychee, noosa, pineapple crush, steve irwin way, sunshine coast on January 22, 2010| 4 Comments »

Lychees sold off the side of the road

A few years ago, we were on our way to Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast, and decided to take the scenic highway to get there. Back then it was called the “Glasshouse Mountains Highway” but they have since renamed it “Steve Irwin Way” since his death which is pretty apt since his Australia Zoo is on that road. Although we have never visited Australia Zoo, we’ve driven past it numerous times and it’s always very busy. One visit, we stopped at this fruit stand that stood next to a pineapple field that advertised “pineapple crush” and really good burgers. We not only had one of each but we also bought one of the largest pineapples I’d ever seen for really cheap! Pineapple crush is basically pineapple juice with crushed pineapple bits in it and that time, it was sooo sweet and so cold that I was hooked. The burger was huge and amazing with avocado in it and we took it to a nearby national park to eat it.

You know how sometimes it’s best not to return to a location so that your memory of the place stays in tact and it lives on like a happy dream forever? Well, I definitely understand that. On our way to catch our flight in Brisbane, we decided to find that fruit stand (I couldn’t remember what it was called) and at least get their pineapple crush. Well we found it alright but sometime was different….it lacked the character that it had. No more signs exclaiming about the best burgers in the world. No pineapple crush in sight and it was pretty dead. I went up to the counter and enquired about the pineapple crush and the woman said that yes, she still had some left. I ordered two large ones (pretty expensive $4.50AU each) and because we didn’t have time to eat burgers, we left with just that. The crush was not very sweet and it tasted watered down. I think they have changed ownership and it just lacked soul. It was so disappointing. Oh well, I still have the memories of the last time I went there and photos of that great burger.

Bought pineapple crush here

Luckily, just before we got to the fruit stand, I saw a guy selling fresh picked lychees off the back of his truck (we call ’em “utes” in Oz). Even though I was about to get on a flight, I just HAD to have them. I couldn’t believe that they were $5.00 for 1 KG (2.2 lbs) bag (here in Adelaide I saw one greengrocer selling them for 3 pieces for $1.00)!! Because it’s illegal (because of quarantine issues) to bring in fresh fruit to South Australia, we peeled all of the lychees at the Sydney airport while waiting during our layover to go home. We gorged ourselves on the lychees before getting on our flight home. I haven’t had such fresh lychee since I was a kid in Hawaii picking them off trees in Nu’u’anu. So fresh and delicious that there was no hard skin that formed around the seed – instead the flesh was very soft and the seed easily slipped out.

I love going to Queensland because it reminds me of my childhood. It is tropical and the fruit that is available is amazing. As you drive along, you can see sugarcane fields, ginger fields, avocado farms and pineapple fields to name a few. If you go there during summer, be sure to eat some fresh lychees. If you are near the Sunshine Coast, “the Big Pineapple” is a hoot to stop at…just for the pictures at least. In late summer the mangoes are in season too and they are beautiful. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Buffet, Sukhothai Hotel

Posted in Bangkok, Buffets, Chocolate, Hotels, Pastry, Travel, Tropical Fruit on March 18, 2009| 2 Comments »

Before I left for Bangkok, I was like a mad woman checking out as many blogs and travel advice websites I could for the best places to eat. As you can imagine, it started to be a huge task and with only three days there, I had to really pick and choose what experiences were on the top of the foodie list. While searching through blogs, I stumbled upon this short post for the Sukhothai Hotel’s chocolate buffet offered on the weekend and I decided that I had to try it. My only regret is that we decided to have the buffet on the same day that we were going to have the big show and buffet that night at the Mandarin Oriental (more on that later) so it was hard to totally gorge at both places!

We caught a cab to the Sukhothai Hotel and it was so nice to see a beautiful, low-rise hotel in the middle of all those buildings. The style of the hotel is similar in so many ways to the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki (5 star/5 diamond) in its minimalist elegance, Asian influence and tropical surrounds. As soon as you walk into the tea salon, you sort of feel like you walked into an elegant library where people are speaking in hushed tones and relaxing in big, comfy upholstered chairs.

Sukhothai

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Immediately, you are greeted, your tea order is taken (or coffee if you like) and then a curiously cold, golden drink is served in a glass. This is the lemongrass drink that I read in that blog! I was so excited because it was described as refreshing but I was so sorely disappointed because for me, I found it much too sweet. Oh well, to each is own. The one thing that our servers did not explain to us was that there were two sections of the buffet. We were sat in the chocolate buffet but across the hall, there was another savoury buffet displayed as well. For people not used to buffets, they probably wouldn’t have ventured out across the hall to see what was on the other side.

Lemongrass Drink

Because we didn’t have lunch, we started with the savouries first. I went straight for the sushi and little dim sums while my husband went for the mini sandwich rolls and cheese. The fresh tropical fruit served at this buffet were fabulous. The quality of everything is very high and everything looked impeccable.

After the savouries came the serious stuff – CHOCOLATE!! I was so overwhelmed with the choices that I didn’t know what to start with first. There were chocolate crème brulées, white or dark chocolate mousses, tri-colour cakes, white chocolate mousse cake with passionfruit topping, dark chocolate truffles and much more. I tried nearly everything there and I was really impressed with it all. My favourites were the lighter textured desserts like the mousses but the truffles were divine as well. There were also a few homemade ice creams: on that day, the flavours were white chocolate/coconut, wasabi chocolate and I think strawberry (sorry, memory is vague).

The savoury buffet

Tropical fruit with the savoury buffet

Chocolate buffet

We both left the pièce-de-resistance to the end – the chocolate cart to make your own custom chocolate drink! On that day, there were 14 separate bowls of different types of chocolate. Each bowl had a label describing either the flavour or sometimes the origin of the chocolate and the percentage of cocoa. Displayed were everything from white chocolate, milk, orange flavoured, Gianduja (hazelnut, think Nutella), African, Central American, you name it! An attendant would put as much chocolate as you wanted into a pot simmering over a heat source and stir it together and serve it to you in a demi cup. The result? An absolutely sublime and dense chocolate drink that you custom made!

Hot chocolate trolley

Attendant mixing the hot chocolate

Before we finished, I saw the chef walk out to check on the display. He started speaking to one of the guests who seemed like his friend and I knew it, he was French – I recognized that the desserts displayed were definitely made by someone who was trained in the French technique. After gorging ourselves for two hours, we stumbled back to our hotel room realizing that we had another big meal in a few hours – oh the dilemmas of holidays. 🙂

Sukhothai Hotel offers the Chocolate Buffet on Friday, Saturday and Sundays from 2 to 6pm. The price for two people was approximately 1860 Baht. It is best to book the buffet if there is a lot going on that weekend as the tea salon is not that big.

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USPS Tropical Fruit Stamp Set

Posted in Fruit, Miscellaneous/Quirky, Tropical Fruit, tagged Carambola, guava, Kiwi, oxalic acid, papaya, Pomegranate, Sergio Baradat, Stamps, Starfruit, USPS Tropical Fruit Stamps, WESTPEX on July 15, 2008| 7 Comments »

U.S.P.S. "Tropical Stamps" Set

I received a package from my friend in San Francisco a few weeks back and normally I don’t take much notice to the stamps on the envelope but this time, I noticed that the stamp looked like a picture of something edible and it was! I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was a guava stamp! Surprised to see one of my favorite fruits on a stamp, I looked up the specifics.

Seems that the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a 27 cent postcard stamp set called “Tropical Stamps” on 25 April 2008. It comprises of five beautifully illustrated stamps by Cuban-born artist Sergio Baradat and was revealed at the WESTPEX Stamp Show in San Francisco. I have to admit, they are very aesthetically pleasing but here is what I DON’T get. According to the press U.S.P.S. press release:

Baradat created art that visually slices or halves five tropical fruits – pomegranate, kiwi, star fruit*, papaya and guava – depicting them in eye-catching and mouth watering color.

OK, correct me if I’m wrong but last time I checked, pomegranates and kiwis are NOT tropical fruit – they may be “exotic” but tropical they are not – I know my tropical fruit! I remember seeing guava trees growing wild all over the rainforest and papayas and starfruit in people’s yards. I know that pomegranate trees can technically grow in the tropics but they don’t tend to get that really dark deep red and they definitely don’t thrive. According to the California Rare Fruit Growers:

Pomegranates prefer a semi-arid mild-temperate to subtropical climate and are naturally adapted to regions with cool winters and hot summers. A humid climate adversely affects the formation of fruit.

There you go, they don’t like humidity and do best in areas with cool winters and hot summers – i.e. anywhere with a “Mediterranean” climate – like in southern France, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sacramento Valley, Napa Valley…you get the idea.

As for kiwis, it is a native of China, from the Yangtze River valley of northern China and Zhejiang Province on the coast of eastern China. Their seeds were taken out of China to New Zealand by missionaries and surprisingly today, Italy is the country that produces the most Kiwifruit in the world! Kiwis grow best in areas where citrus and stone fruit grow and depending upon the cultivar, their needs vary dramatically but what’s certain is that kiwis need a certain period of winter chilling (for dormancy).

Although very pretty, I would honestly LOVE to find out who chose the fruits for the “tropical” stamps collection and why they chose the pomegranate and kiwi to be included!

*Starfruit is also known as Carambola and PLEASE don’t eat it if it’s green because it is not ripe! I have seen some appaulling examples of starfruit sold at the supermarket. I can just imagine someone who is curious to eat a starfruit and buys a green one and because they taste so horrible, thus writes them off for life! Starfruit should be eaten when it’s a deep yellow color (when they are sweet and fragrant) and often when the outside edges (star tips) start to brown (as you see in the stamp illustration). Those with kidney problems, gout or rheumatoid arthritis should avoid eating it due to its high level of oxalic acid.