Jackfruit

You've seen pictures of the fruit on the tree on my blog before...I've finally had a chance to try fresh jackfruit! June/July are full of fruits in Bangladesh - lychees, mangoes and jackfruit, not to mention all the other fruits that I haven't yet tried!

My driver knew that I hadn't had jackfruit before - so he generously bought one and shared some with me. These fruits are HUGE - no one could possibly finish one alone...but they are also expensive. Apparently these fruits are very popular with the Chinese, who buy them up at the local markets and drive the prices up for these fruit.

The jackfruit "skin" and inside fibers contain this extremely gummy and sticky sap. You have to cover your hands with some kind of oil (mustard oil is traditional in Bangladesh) to protect it from the sap. You prepare the fruit by ripping an opening at the top, using the stem - similar to opening a banana. Then you pull the yellow bulbs from the inside fibers of the fruit.

Fresh jackfruit has a nice perfume - similar to a flowering banana shrub. It's like a cross between jasmine and bananas. It tastes a bit like bananas and apple. The flavor is not bad - it's nice if you like apples and bananas. Unfortunately, I'm not very partial to bananas and rarely eat them except in banana walnut bread. The texture is a bit slimey and fibrous - I had to eat it with a fork and knife - eating the entire piece in a single mouthful was a bit daunting and hard to chew and swallow. (I found the fibers too long to be able to swallow down without first cutting a single pod into 4-8 pieces.)

Here's a closeup shot of the fresh jackfruit. Each pod surrounds a single seed.

The jackfruit is an amazing fruit though, the skin of the fruit can be given to livestock as food. You can eat the fruit fresh and dried (I prefer dried). AND you can even eat the seeds! I had my housekeeper prepare them for me. You can fry them in oil or even boil them and mash them up. The are actually quite starchy and tasty - something between a potato and a turnip. (Starchy like a potato, but more grainy in texture...like a turnip or jicama.) The whole fruit is edible in some form or another - isn't that pretty amazing?

A major drawback of the fruit (besides the texture and stickiness of the sap) is that after you've opened the fruit and it starts to degrade, it begins to smell awful...like durian, with an overtone of over-ripe bananas. UGH!

But - some people LOVE this fruit, and I can see why...I just personally wouldn't eat this particular variety again. Apparently there are several different varieties of jackfruit - a friend who grew up in Brazil says the ones there are the best. Guess I will have to try those at some point! =)