Today’s Tasting: The Exotic Fruits of Indonesia
Clockwise from left: jack fruit (yellow), longan cluster, dragon fruit, shine muscat grapes, baby coconut, saba bananas, wax apples, sopadillas, sweet sapphire grapes, snake fruits. Center left: passion fruit (mottled orange). Center: sweet oranges.
ONE HAS THE SOFT AND LAYERED TEXTURE of wet toilet paper. Another appears covered in snake skin. A third has the flavor of a date and the texture of congealed cream of wheat.
Welcome to today’s treat, the exotic fruits of Indonesia. If you think the world of produce is at your door because Safeway sells coconuts, think again, my friend! There are some wacky fruits out there that seem unlikely ever to cross the U.S.’s threshold. And no, I’m not talking about durian, the spiny, blimp-sized fruit that reeks of vomit. Durian is commonly found in U.S. specialty markets whose customers don’t have noses.
The fruits pictured above are from one day’s shop at the morning market in Ubud, Bali. Some are unknown to most Westerners while others are most familiar in another form. Post-shopping research revealed that many of them aren’t native to Indonesia at all, although they are sold here.
Here’s a rundown of some of these fun, fun, fun fruits.
Jackfruit (nangka)
I’d heard of this before, but had only encountered it growing wild on the Napali coast of Hawaii, where the exterior resembles a pineapple. Jackfruit in Indonesia is a large, roundish fruit with a bumpy husk like ostrich skin. Vegans use it as a meat substitute.
Tasting notes: The flesh is juiceless and meaty in texture, easily separating into strips and sections containing a smooth, black seed. The flavor is tasty and mildly sweet, approximately banana level of intensity. Low acidity. Very noshable.
Related to: Fig, mulberry, and breadfruit
Soursop (sirsak)
Soursop is a large, slightly oblong fruit with a leathery, spiny, green skin. The interior is milky white and separates into thin layers like sopping-wet toilet tissue. Among the layers are a few black, shiny seeds. Originally from the Caribbean and Central America.
Tasting notes: Sweet, enjoyable flavor with a light, citrusy kick. Soft, juicy, layered texture.
Related to: custard apple
A very ripe soursop
Sopadilla (sawo)
A dead ringer, visually, for a small, brown-skinned potato. The skin is very thin, like a non-fuzzy kiwi. Originally from Mexico and Central America.
Tasting notes: the flavor is similar to a dried date while the flesh is soft and a little mealy. The texture and mildly astringent skin stopped me after two bites, but the friend I was tasting with LOVED it. For me, sopadilla would be delicious in a smoothie or rum cocktail.
Related to: more obscure fruits from the Manilkara genus of tropical trees.
Longan (lengkeng)
Little khaki-colored fruits that grow in clusters like grapes with a rough, dry peel that is easy to remove because it attaches only at the stem. Very lychee-like in general, but half the size.
Tasting notes: Juicy and tasty with translucent white flesh and a flavor similar to lychee. Large, smooth seed in the middle to be spat out. Relatively low flesh-to-seed ratio.
Related to: Lychee and rambutan
Wax apple (apel lilin)
Popular U.S. apple varieties like fuji are common in Indonesia, but I haven’t had a good one. Wax apples, which resemble a small, bright red pear, are too delicate to throw in your handbag, but flavor-wise are the apple of choice in this part of the world.
Tasting notes: Juicy with delicate flesh and a thin skin like a pear. Pronounced round indentation in its bottom. Tastes like a flavorful apple.
Related to: myrtle
Snake fruit (buah ular)
This small fruit with a brown, scaly peel resembles nothing so much as a headless, heart-shaped snake. It grows in tight clusters at the base of palm trees; the fruits are typically separated for sale.
Tasting notes: The dry, thin peel is easily removed, similar to lychee and longan.
Each fruit separates into sections like cloves of garlic. The white flesh has a delicious, apple-adjacent flavor and juicy, crisp texture.
Related to: no other commonly consumed fruits
Passion fruit (buah markisa)
Passion fruit is gaining recognition in the mainland U.S. and is popular in Hawaii. Typically it’s consumed as syrup, juice, or jam.
Tasting notes: Pretty, plum-sized, oval fruit with a smooth peel that varies in color (green, yellow, purple). The flesh consists of seeds covered in a gelatinous substance and so is most easily eaten with a spoon. Intense, complex flavor and zingy acidity — really yum.
Related to: No other commonly eaten fruit
Interior view of the sopadilla, wax apple, and passion fruit (grey seeds)
Sweet orange (jeruk)
These mandarin-sized, orange-and-green skinned fruits are common across much of Indonesia.
Tasting notes: Easy to peel. Small sections, very juicy. Sweet, sour, and tangy. The skins give off a light diesel aroma, similar to certain German Riesling wines. Most likely they share an ester.
Related to: All the citrus fruits
Shine muscat grapes (anggur muscat mengkilap)
The only other place I had encountered these preternaturally green, voluptuous grapes was in Japan, which it turns out is their country of origin. The Japanese have a thing about fruit and also perfection, which manifests in this hybridized variety.
Tasting notes: Vibrant honeydew-green, super juicy, and bursting with flavor. There is no toughness to the skin, no seeds, no edgy acidity, and no gelatinous mouth feel. A poster child for mutant excellence.
Hybridization of: Akitsu-21 and Hakunan varieties. Related to all grapes
Dragon fruit (buah naga)
This purple fruit in a Rococo pink peel is commonly grown in Indonesia for home use and is widely available in markets. Dragon fruits grow on a leggy cactus originally from Central and South America.
Tasting notes: The thick peel is easy to remove, revealing beet-purple or white flesh sprinkled with tiny black seeds. The mild flavor and texture somewhat resemble kiwi, but with lower acidity. Very good taste, but the appearance is the real show-stopper.
Related to: prickly pear
Baby coconut (bayi kelapa)
The cute little thing pictured is a regular coconut, but is immature and thus orange. Mature husks turn green.
Tasting notes: Baby coconuts are terrific because they contain plenty of liquid and the flesh is soft enough to scoop out easily with a spoon. Fun, slippery texture – not yet meaty – and a winning, mildly sweet, earthy-nutty flavor.
Related to: dates and other palm fruits
Sawa banana (pisang kepok)
There are many types of bananas in Indonesia, including the long cavendish variety that represents 99% of the U.S. market. In Indonesia, cavendishes are mostly found at convenience store chains while local markets sell the smaller, less commercialized varieties.
Tasting notes: Almost universally, I find small banana types have more flavor than U.S. ones. Some have light-orange flesh. Some are perfectly ripe when the peels are green. The thick peels can be very banged up and the fruit inside remain unblemished. The variety pictured, sawa banana, has an angular shape, an almost fluffy texture, and is used in banana fritters and fruit compote.
Related to: plantain
Sweet sapphire aka moon drop grapes (anggur tetes bulan (direct translation))
The internet tells me that this is a cross-bred (not GMO) grape from California that has been around since 2004. It is long, thin, and purple-black; grows in loose clusters; and has a dimpled bottom.
Tasting notes: It is truly novel to eat a grape that looks like a dead man’s finger. Relatively low in acid with a high flesh-to-juice ratio. Crispy, tasty, satisfying to chomp.
Related to: All grapes. The Beita Mouni variety is one of its two cross-breeding components. The other is a secret.
The morning market in Ubud, Bali.
Read about my cultural insights tour of Southeast Asia in the post “Reaching escape velocity.”
It Sure Ain’t Cocaine: How to Use Betel Nut and Why You Probably Don’t Want to
Jerick preps my chew: moma, or betel nut berry; slaked lime; and a pungent leaf.
FROM COCAINE TO TOBACCO TO COFFEE, many addictive substances, no matter their place of origin, eventually gain a global following. After all, they’re addictive! But not so the betel nut, which I recently encountered on a visit to Batad, a tiny rice farming village in the Philippines jungle.
While trekking Batad’s vertiginous rice terraces, I noticed that my guide Jerick’s teeth and gums were turning a dark shade of orange. A cracked bit of something clung to his lower lip. “May I ask what’s in your mouth?”
“Moma,” he said, which Google Translate informed me was betel nut, the preferred chew of Bloody Mary in the old Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific.
“Oh no way! Can I try it? Will you teach me?”
“Are you sure?”
“Myrna whipped out a ziplock baggy of moma supplies.”
Moma, technically a husked berry rather than a nut, is chewed widely in Southeast and South Asia, especially by drivers and other manual laborers looking for a hands-free stimulant. More formally known as areca nut, it grows on areca palm trees, which thrive in jungle habitats like Batad’s – making it cheap and readily available.
Jerick seemed surprised at my request. He warned that, like tobacco, the first experience with betel nut was often disappointing. It would likely leave me dizzy and also lack the warming, mildly stimulating, and relaxing effect that regular users enjoy.
“I’ll be careful,” I promised. “I just want to see what it’s like.” Also I was under the impression, likely from reading National Geographic magazine as a kid, that betel nut stains and loosens teeth. After five years of orthodontia as a kid, I had no intention of fucking up my pearly whites.
The next day, Jerick and I stopped on the terrace of his aunt/cousin/some sort of relative Myrna, who whipped out a ziplock baggy of moma supplies. (Pretty much everyone in the village is related in some way. The culture is tribal and Batad is accessible only by footpath, so it’s insular.)
Chewing moma involves a pleasant ritual akin to tamping a cigarette out of the pack, lighting up, and lighting someone else’s. People who don’t know each other might share moma at their first meeting as a way of connecting, Jerick said.
So it plays a role sort of like coffee, tea, chewing gum, tobacco, weed, cookies, shnaps, or beer, depending on your culture.
“Most people in Batad, even children, chew moma.”
Jerick took from from the baggy a 2” piece of pungent leaf that he called mint, but which is actually from a vine that shares the name “betel”; a small plastic pillbox of fine white powder; and a chunk of seedy, light brown-orange fruit, maybe an inch long, within a fibrous husk.
First Jerick removed most of the husk to save for post-momo tooth cleansing. Then he dipped the fruit in the white powder, a form of slaked lime that comes from snail shells. He then wrapped the leaf around the betel nut to form a tiny package.
This I put in my mouth and chomped, then held the package in my teeth. “Don’t swallow or chew too long or you’ll get dizzy,” Jerick warned. The goal is to make it last from 5 minutes to several hours, depending on how long you want stimulation. I was done in under a minute.
Almost immediately, my salivary glands went into overdrive and I started spitting. (Myrna and Jerick, as seasoned moma users, rarely spat.) As I chewed, pieces of husk started breaking up unpleasantly in my mouth. After three spits, I hocked the whole thing into the jungle and rinsed my mouth with water.
I felt maybe very slightly light-headed, but not buzzed. As with tobacco and weed, I was completely happy to learn that betel nut is not a vice I am drawn to.
Most people in Batad, even the children, chew moma, said Myrna. It’s good for health, lifts the mood, and is warming in the winter, she said. It’s also something to do when you’re bored.
Jerick, on the other hand, said he believes that betel nut is good for the teeth if you chew it occasionally, but an everyday habit for a year will make your teeth loose.
That’s the word in Batad; science begs to differ. Studies show a link between betel nut and harms such as oral and esophageal cancer, which are more likely if the moma is combined with tobacco, as is common. Jerick and Myrna chew their betel nut with tobacco.
“Snorting white powder achieved a surprising level of glamor in the 1980s”
Australia banned betel nut a few years ago after dentists noticed high levels of oral cancer among older Southeast Asian immigrants. (Fortunately not among the young, who are no doubt busy with sexier vices like vaping.)
Another reason the betel nut habit seems unlikely to spread is that both the fruit and the leaf are chewed fresh, not dried, making transport logistics harder.
And then there’s the spitting which, let’s face it, is disgusting. Admittedly, snorting white powder achieved a surprising level of glamor in the 1980s and, despite all odds, oxygen bars were an actual thing in the 1990s. But I find it hard to imagine a reality in which modern hipsters bond en masse by chewing fibrous plant matter that produces unholy quantities of spit.
Moma was fun for me, as an outsider, to try once. But I do hope that Jerick, Myrna, and the hundreds of millions of other moma users across Asia someday get access to accurate information about the risks.
Your intrepid correspondent and the tell-tale sign of moma.
Garden gimlet: The cocktail that converts nuns to gin
Recipe for Garden Gimlet, the cocktail that converts nuns to gin
The cucumberiness of Hendrick’s has a special alchemy with the fresh cuc.
For anyone who was raised Protestant (hello!), you should know that there are religious Americans who like to drink and they are called Catholics. Water into wine, remember – Christians haven't always been uptight about drinking.
In any event, a Catholic friend of mine served a garden gimlet to her nun buddy one warm day in San Francisco. I don’t know if there was a flash of light or burning bush or anything, but the sister fell in love with hard liquor for the first time and left excited to share this tasty treat with her community.
The garden gimlet is my #1 favorite cocktail and is in high demand with my friends. Once I spilled quite a puddle of it on the table when my friend Leah was visiting, and she asked for a straw so she could suck up every drop. Which she did. That’s how you know a cocktail is next level.
Tips
The gin: Use Hendrick’s if possible because its cucumberiness has a special alchemy with the fresh cuc. Otherwise, any good London-style gin is fine. Avoid very piney, salty, or otherwise savory gins.
The sugar: You can use simple syrup, but to my palette, uncooked sugar has more purity of flavor. ONLY use superfine aka baker’s sugar. Granulated sugar won’t dissolve and powdered sugar contains corn starch. You can make superfine sugar by simply grinding white granulated sugar in a food processor for about four minutes.
The cucumber: peel it if the peeling is at all bitter.
A muddler: won’t suffice for a large batch, so use a blender. Even for a single batch, I am not above using an immersion blender.
When muddling: stack cucumber on bottom, basil leaves next, and sugar on top. The sugar will help shred the basil leaves and that will all muddle into the cucumber.
Recipe (one serving)
Ingredients
2 oz good gin
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 T superfine sugar or 1:1 simple syrup
3 medium basil leaves and a fourth pretty one for garnish
About a 1-inch chunk of cucumber (1.5ish ounces), sliced
Technique
In a metal cocktail shaker, add cucumber, basil leaves, sugar, and lime juice. Muddle with a sturdy muddler until it’s all good and smashed, or pulse with an immersion blender
Add gin
Shake vigorously to blend the ingredients together and dissolve the sugar
Strain out the solids with a fine mesh sieve; smoosh the liquid out using the back of a spoon
Return drink to the cocktail shaker ⅔ filled with ice and shake for 30 seconds
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass
Slap a pretty basil leaf to release the aromas and float on top