I know I had blogged about dragonfruit before. But I can’t resist showing this photo I have just taken of the red flesh version.

I bought two bottles of red dragon fruit wine which is Made-In-Malaysia. In Kuala Lumpur, to be exact. The fruits are from Kluang, Johor. I bought them because they are unique. I can’t say much about the taste yet as I haven’t try them except what I tasted at the food exhibition in Penang.

The producer has an informative website at
ILOVEPITAYA.COM
A Research and Development Center for PITAYA (Dragon Fruit)

I copied something from the site for information. Do surf over if you wish to learn more about dragonfruit. They even teach you how to make wine!

Pitaya, origin and native from South America, is a popular fruit over there. It has been brought by Holland and France into Asia. Now, the main cultivate are in Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.

It is a nutritional fruit. Nowadays, the Pitaya has been cultivated on a large scale in Malaysia as well as in other country.

Normally we catteries the Pitaya into three type.

1. White Flesh, Red Outlook (Picture), Hylocereus Undatus, family of Cetaceae
2. Red Flesh, Red Outlook (Picture), Hylocereus Polyrhizus, family of Cetaceae
3. White Flesh, Yellow Outlook, Selenicereus Megalanthus, family of Cetaceae

How the Pitaya look like? Visit our web, and you will get the better understanding of this wonderful plant.

Usually, The Pitaya is grown in the tropical lowlands. It is a tropical fruit. It can be grown with organic fertilizer, and without any pesticide and chemical. Therefore, the Pitaya gain its reputation on the market as a healthy fruit.

The fruit is juicy, with a subtle fruity flavors. Red Pitaya is pleasant to eat and when sliced the fruit is especially attractive.

I know breadfruit because it was mentioned in the children’s novel Robinson Crusoe or is the the other title where the whole family was shipwrecked and stranded on an island. I can’t remember the title at the moment.

Anyway, after reading about the marvels of breadfruit, I had been fascinated. Because I thought breadfruit taste like bread. But in actual, it taste like some yam.

Over here in Penang, one do find some stalls selling breadfruit fritters. However, I admit that I had never tasted them because I was told that it gives ‘wind’ and cause flatulence.

Therefore, I would appreciate if someone can tell me exactly how breadfruit taste like.

The credit of this photo goes to moo_t. He also blogged about the breadfruit but mistaken it for another fruit which looks exactly the same. You can find the scientific name and all the details from moo_t’s website. Surf around moo_t’s website. He just returned from climbing Mount Kinabalu. Plenty of photos and useful information available. Thanks moo_t for the photo and the information provided!

Question : Is there an English name for chempedak? Nangka is jackfruit so what is chempedak?

I think the chempedak is the next stinkiest fruit after the durians. Stinky but nice. You either love it or cannot tolerate it.

The chempedak is another seasonal fruit that will make its presence together with the durians, rambutans, mangosteen and langsats (hmmm, how come I haven’t seen any in the market?).

It is an ugly fruit, I would say. With sticky white saps that make it unattractive.

Cutting the fruit open is a chore because one can get the white sap stucked to the hands. To cut open, just slit the top of the fruit with a sharp knife, taking care not to ‘stab’ too deep. Just a simple slit at the top and you can tear apart the fruit.

It reveals a middle stem and the each seed is nicely snuggled in this ‘nest’ of yellow stringy strips. The flesh of the chempedak is also very stringy.

The chempedak is best eaten fried, as fritters. It can be eaten fresh too.

Some people will boil the seeds with some salt and eat it too.

Some thoughts on chempedak:
1) It is not flattering when someone referred to your clothes as ‘the casing of a chempedak (sarung chempedak). You see, when the chempedak is just fruiting (?), the planters have to wrap each fruit in a casing made from the palm leaves. These casing will grow along with the fruit but towards the end, the casing will be too small. So, if someone said ‘sarung chempedak’ it means that you have grown too fat for your clothes.

2) Always supervise small children when they eat chempedak. The stringy flesh is a choking hazard. So is the slippery seed.

3) To remove the sap from your hand after cutting the fruit, use cooking oil to rub. If still not removeable, smother with some talcum powder (or like I did, grab some rice and rub it off).

4) Chinese believe the chempedak will cause ‘wind’ or flatulence. Probably this fruit is too fibrous. Some people do get sick after taking chempedak. Pregnant womens and mothers who just delivered babies are usually forbid to eat, unless fried.

If you are not careful in removing the sap and accidentally ate the fruit with sap, it can make your teeth yellowish because of the sticky sap stuck to your teeth. Do you know that there are foods which can cause our teeth to become yellowish? Check out this 12 foods to avoid to make teeth whiter.

Here are part of the red fruits I found such as red apple from Washington, USA, lychee from Thailand, strawberries from California, USA and dragon fruit which I believe is planted locally.

This strawberry looks so succulent in macro mode but it is sooooo sour in reality. The whole batch of fresh strawberries I bought had ended up as puree, frozen and waiting for its fate. I wanted to bake muffin with them but my kids said they wanted plain muffin.

So, lesson learnt. What looks good on camera does not necessarily taste good and will go to waste.

Fruits seem to be competing amongst each other. There are the seasonal fruits like rambutan, mangosteen, durian, langsat in the market. And those fruits from USA like apples, strawberries and oranges are in abundance in the supermarket. Closer to Malaysia, the seasonal fruits from Thailand like longans and lychees are being sold here too.

So, it is fruit, glorious fruits. I bought a few type of red colour fruits the other day just to take photos. Hahaha, seriously, I don’t enjoy eating them but bought them just for the eyes.

These lychees are from Thailand. I am scared of eating lychees after reading someone’s blog about the ‘things’ hiding in lychees. So, half of the lychees I bought had been thrown away. *Warning – Do not go to the blog link provided unless you do NOT have a weak stomach.* Anyway, I tried his method of washing lychees and nope, I get nothing.