Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Exotic fruits from Sarawak

Sarawak is a land of plenty. The jungle here is actually a rich source of fruits and food. Therefore, it is no wonder that the natives of this place can live in the jungle without any problem.
This is sour eggplant. I understand that this can be found only in E.Malaysia. The taste is sour and the flesh is crunchy. When cooked, it become soft. The people here like to cook curry with this. I saw the Iban cook them in soup also. The taste is good...I actually like it but have never attempted to cook one myself.
This is a wild fruit. Someone nicknamed it as "canon ball". The Iban called it mauwan  (A reader told me that Iban normally pronounce it as buah "embawang"). The tree is tall... in fact very tall. I think it can grow anything like 40-60 feet. My mother told me that if this thing drop on one's head, it will be sure death!
My memories of this fruit was not positive. I remember having to dip it in sugar or else it was simply too sour. But now, after eating a few this season, I found that this fruit can be sweet. But it is very fibrous. So, if anyone has constipation, this fruit will definitely cure the problem!
The skin of this fruit is very thick. To open it, I need to slice the skin and peel it, exposing the flesh. Then I need to use my special knife to slice the flesh off. The trick is actually not to peel all the skin off otherwise it will then be too slippery to handle.
I came across this fruit - forgot the name. Anyone knows the name? (A reader told me that this fruit is called buah kundung). When I saw the fruit this season, I thought that it must be delicious as they look good.
When my Malay friend showed me how to peel the skin off, the taste instantly brought back memories. When I was young, I ate quite a lot of this fruit. It was everywhere but not anymore. The taste is also slightly sour. I can't actually describe the taste. All I can say is that it is unique!
These are some unique fruits available in E.Malaysia.

7 comments:

wenn said...

hasn't seen that fruits in real before..

Ensurai said...

the third fruit is called Wong Dang in Foochow and Buah Kundong in Iban.
the Bruneians love it very much. And of course the Ibans. I have featured it in my blog. Where did you buy the buah kundong?

I use the dried skins to cook fish and meat to enhance taste. Thus no need to use aji no moto.

Nice photos of course.

ladyviral said...

that fruit looks like mango... I don't mean the treddish one.. tha tone looks like mangosteen hehehe :P.

Fruits are healthy especially for this kind of weather lately :).

William said...

Wenn: I understand all those fruits are only available in E Malaysia. So, visit E.M. one of these days!

CY: Thanks. You are absolutely right. They are wong dang! I didn't buy them. I went to Gua Longhouse Chalet taking photos and going to create a blog for them. I came across this fruit and helped myself to some! Wah, the skin can be used to cook fish!?

Thanks for your kind words!

Ladyviral: That mauwan looks like mango and taste almost like one.

The wong dang is a "mini mangoesteen"!
Yes, eat plenty of fruits. I got stomach ache today. Don't know whether it is from eating too much durian.

Anonymous said...

Good to see your blog. I was trying to seach latin name for that wild Sarawakiens' sour eggplant or Iban tomatoes, then ur blog blinked out.

Anonymous said...

nice blog & i love the Sarawak local exotics fruits. btw, Iban normaly pronounce that as buah "embawang" & the last picture was called buah kundung....

Anonymous said...

Your call the all exotic fruits in e.malaysia, the first one is trong iban and third one is buah kunungdung
(I just fix something not right)