Tropical Fruits

One of the things I love about living in tropical Asia is the variety of fruits. There is such a variety and because it's warm all year round, you get fruits all the time. Not only that, they are very cheap.
I've been lucky to get the maid who cleans my apartment, to buy and cut up fruits for me everyday. The Vietnamese usually serve fruits as the last course of the meal, whether it's at a restaurant or at home. It's their dessert.



On the left are pomeloes, which is like a bigger version of a grapefruit. Some people call it Chinese grapefruit. You can grow this in Arizona. The pomeloes in Vietnam are much sweeter.







Here is a fruit cart selling mangoes, pineapples, sugar cane, papayas, and water melons







Shelling coconut husks so they will be ready to be sold.
The next picture shows what they look like after they've been shelled.








The vendor cuts the top off and put a straw into the coconut. After you drank the coconut juice, you can cut it open and use a spoon to scrape the coconut flesh. The juice tastes great on a hot day. Costs about $1 a coconut.








I don't know what this fruit is called. I haven't had it for a long time. The inside has white flesh like mangosteen.








Persimmons, which also grows very well in California. I was surprised many Americans have never tasted persimmons. The ripes ones are very sweet. They are usually in season around October-November.







You find durians everywhere. Not all Vietnamese like durians. They don't grow them in northern part of Vietnam.






Guava. They can be white or pink on the inside.









A fruit stand selling all kinds of fruits. In the foreground is mangosteen.

Rambutan. It has hairy skin. You twist open the skin and inside is a fruit that looks a little like a lychee.

Dragon Fruit. It is usually grey inside. Not as sweet as other fruits.

Mangoes. You see mango trees everywhere. There are many varieties in Asia and some are imported into Vietnam. The best mangoes are from India. Next time you go to an Indian restaurant, ask for a mango lassi. It's like a mango smoothie.

Longans. You break the skin and eat the translucent flesh. It has a seed inside.

A woman vendor selling pineapples. The pineapples here are small and very sweet. Unlike pineapples in the supermarket in the US that were picked way before they are ripe and have to ship over long distances, these pineapples are grown locally and are ripe when you buy them.

Melons and green-skin oranges. I don't know what kind of melons these are but they taste like cantaloupes. The oranges are surprisingly quite sweet.

Singaporeans call this fruit chiku. It has brown color flesh and is very sweet.