Strange fruits in Vietnam

Thanks to favorable weather and natural conditions, Vietnam is a paradise of fruits. Besides high merits and tremendous yield, Vietnam's fruits also include many strange fruits in Vietnam that can not be found anywhere else. In this blog, the Best Vietnam Tour Operator will introduce to you 17 types of strange fruits in Vietnam, that may trigger you to try one time.

1. Papaya (đu đủ )

Papaya fruit is large, round, long, soft when ripe, has brown or black seeds depending on the variety, and has many seeds. Besides being a delicious fruit, papaya is also often used in Vietnamese five-fruit trays. Because its Vietnamese name is “đu đủ” meaning “sufficient”. Vietnamese people burn incense with this fruit to pray for fullness, happiness, and prosperity.

When ripe, papaya has a sweet taste and an extremely delicious dark orange color. Papaya flesh is soft and succulent. Green papaya is green in color, chewy and crunchy, so it is often used to make pickles or salads. 

Eating papaya helps support digestion, reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease, aging and cancer. Eating papaya also helps lose weight, reduces inflammation, helps reduce blood sugar levels, prevents heart disease and is good for skin and hair.

2. Star apple (Vú sữa)

The name comes from a Vietnamese folk tale. The birth of star apple trees originates from a story about a mother and her child. Because the mother pampered her child, the child became spoiled and did not listen to her, so he ran away from home with bad friends. When he was hungry, thirsty, and homesick, he went back to look for his mother and could no longer find her. I just saw a strange tree growing in the garden, the tree produced fragrant fruit as sweet as mother's milk. That tree is the embodiment of a mother who is tired of waiting for her child to return. Later, people loved that delicious fruit and named it star apple and planted varieties everywhere.

There are two main types of star apple tree: green-skinned star apple and purple-skinned star apple. Although different in color, the sweet taste and aroma are almost the same. The fruit of star apple is round, has a natural purple, yellow or greenish brown skin when ripe, usually green around the sepals, with a star shape in the flesh, so the English name is star apples. The pulp of the fruit is edible and very delicious, used in desserts. Star apple has a sweet taste and is often served fresh or chilled. 

3. Rambutan (Chôm chôm)

The name rambutan (or rambutan) symbolizes the hairy state of the fruit of this tree. Rambutan fruit has red skin, including fleshy spines. The fruit flesh is pearly white, soft, succulent, and has a sweet or slightly sour taste. Rambutan season is in the summer, there are many in the southern provinces of Vietnam, it is very cool to eat in the summer.

You can eat fresh rambutan or use it to make juice, eat dried rambutan or you can also make rambutan jam. Besides, rambutan meat can be used to combine with many other fruits to prepare many different dishes such as salads, smoothies, cakes, etc.

Rambutan is low in calories and high in fiber so it can help patients maintain a reasonable weight. Phosphorus in rambutan also helps the kidneys eliminate waste, helping to reduce pressure on the kidneys. However, to achieve the above benefits, diabetics should not eat more than 6 rambutans/day.

4. Custard apple (Na)

The custard apple has a shell that resembles dragon scales stacked on top of each other. But behind the rough and harsh-looking shell is a layer of white, extremely sweet flesh. It's a bit inconvenient to eat because the custard apple has a lot of seeds, so you have to spit out the seeds continuously when eating.

The custard apple is an extremely nutritious fruit, containing many vitamins, anti-oxidant fiber, and effective anti-aging and cancer prevention.

 5. Wax apple (Roi)

The fruit is a bell-shaped fruit that comes in white, pink, dark red and even purple. The meat is spongy, succulent, refreshing, and has a mildly sweet and slightly sour taste. Roi has no seeds and is grown in the southern provinces of Vietnam.

Eating whip helps strengthen the immune system, is good for the heart, eyes, and digestive system, helps prevent diabetes, reduces the risk of stroke, and makes the skin beautiful.

6. Star fruit (Khế)

Star fruit is green and bright yellow when ripe. The fruit has 5 segments, so when sliced ​​it gives a star shape. Star fruit meat is crispy and succulent. There are two types of star fruit: sour star fruit and sweet star fruit. Sweet star fruit has a sweet and slightly sour taste and is often eaten fresh like other fruits. As for sour star fruit, it has a strong sour taste. It is often cut and eaten with acrid green bananas to neutralize the acidity in some Vietnamese dishes.

When cutting star fruit, you should cut off the edge of each segment, because this part is hard, astringent and easily wilted.

7. Jackfruit (Mít)

Jackfruit is the largest fruit, you will not see any other fruit as big as jackfruit in this world. The jackfruit peel is rough, has small thorns, and when pierced it is quite painful. Jackfruit season usually falls in late spring or early summer. Jackfruit flesh is yellow, dark yellow or orange depending on the type of jackfruit. The meat is soft and slightly chewy. Honey jackfruit is the softest type, while Thai jackfruit has slightly crispy and spongy flesh. The taste of jackfruit is very sweet and fragrant. The aroma of jackfruit is very strong and diffuses when ripe.

Jackfruit can be eaten fresh or dried, the sweetness is still retained but the texture is crunchy like a snack. Jackfruit is a fruit with a shell with many thorns and a lot of pus, so cutting the shell and separating segments is very difficult. If you want to try this fruit, you should buy jackfruit that has been cut and separated into sections.

8. Persimmon (Hồng)

Persimmons are round or flattened fruits. When the persimmon is still green, it has a very acrid taste and is difficult to eat. You have to wait until it is ripe to eat it. When ripe, the skin is orange, and the soft flesh is also orange, has a sweet taste, and has seeds.

Persimmons can be eaten fresh or dried. Dried or air-dried persimmons are very popular because the finished product has a sweet taste, the flesh turns transparent, and the flesh becomes chewy and delicious.

9. Sapodilla (Hồng xiêm)

Sapodilla is shaped like an egg. The peel is light yellow brown and dusty. Inside is reddish brown flesh that is smooth, slippery, and slightly chewy. The seeds are black. The fruit has a very sweet taste, many people comment that it tastes like honey or black sugar.

You should only eat sapodilla when ripe, because when it is still green, the fruit has a lot of sap, is not good for health, and tastes extremely astringent. To know if the fruit is ripe or not, you can pinch the fruit to see if it is soft enough.

10. Guava (Ổi)

The fruit is roughly round in shape, or similar in shape to a pear but smaller. The shell is green, slightly white or yellow, edible. Guava has many seeds, small, and very hard, when eating you can remove the seeds. The flesh is white, slightly spongy, crispy when green and slightly soft when ripe. Peach guava has a beautiful peach color. The taste is light, slightly sweet and slightly sour.

Although it has a sweet and sour taste, Vietnamese people like to dip guava with chili salt or shrimp salt to enhance the flavor of this fruit.

11. Dragonfruit (Thanh long)

Dragon fruit is a plant belonging to the cactus family. Like the name of this fruit, its shape resembles a dragon's head or part of its body. The shell has "dragon beards" that stand up very majestically. The shell is usually dark pink, with a little green color from the fleshy spines. Sometimes there is also a yellow shell. The flesh is white or dark pink, soft and spongy like in the mouth. Slightly sweet taste. Dragon fruit seeds are many and dense like black sesame seeds. Although there are many seeds, they are small, soft and edible. 

The fruit can be processed into juice or wine; The flowers can be eaten or steeped in water like sweet soup. Vietnamese people also often have dragon fruit on the five-fruit tray because of its dignified appearance as well as good cultural meanings.

12. Passion fruit (Chanh leo)

Passion fruit is round or oval in shape. They are golden brown, red, purple and green. The fruit shell is usually tough and hard like plastic, to contain the seeds inside. The seeds are covered by juice. The juice is bright yellow, sour, slightly sweet and has a very characteristic aroma.

Passion fruit can be eaten directly, or squeezed to make juice, and it is very cool to drink in the summer.

13. Lanzone/Langsat (Bòn Bon)

Bon bon is a fruit that is abundant in the southern provinces of Vietnam. Bon bon fruits usually grow in clusters, like a bunch of grapes, the size of each fruit is the same as a grape or a little larger. The fruit's shell is light brown or beige, with many tiny black dots appearing on the bottom of the fruit. The skin is thin but tough. When eating, it must be peeled. When peeled, no sap will flow out. The fruit flesh is transparent white and plump. Such a fruit usually has 5 to 6 segments, each segment has a seed. The taste of bon bon is both sour and sweet, very delicious.

14. (Mulberry) Dâu tằm

Up to now, what species mulberry belongs to is still controversial. However, in appearance, mulberries resemble berries such as strawberries or raspberries, with a dark red color that turns black when ripe. This is a fruit with a sweet and sour taste. Mulberries have been grown in Vietnam for thousands of years, because mulberry leaves are the main food source for silkworms, which produce silk for Vietnamese people to weave into shiny silk sheets.

15. Gourd fruit (Quả gấc)

Gac fruit is round or oval in shape, about an arm long, and quite heavy in the hand. The outer shell is usually covered with small spines. When ripe, the fruit gradually changes color, from green to yellow, orange and finally red, then the fruit can be harvested. Gac meat is almost tasteless and yellow in color. The part of the seed membrane is thick, sticky and bright orange-red. Gac fruit contains a lot of oil, is a fruit that is a rich source of vegetable oil.

Gac fruit is usually not eaten directly, but is pressed to extract oil or mixed with sticky rice to make sticky rice. Gac sticky rice has an eye-catching red color, a slightly greasy taste and a gentle aroma.

Gac oil is very good for health, rich in vitamin A which is good for the eyes, anti-oxidant and anti-cancer, so this is also known as "the fruit from heaven".

16. Ambarella (Cóc)

Ambarella is a fruit similar in shape and size to a chicken egg. The fruit is dark green and has a sour taste. The flesh is white, thick, and crispy. The fruit has a faint resinous smell similar to that of Melaleuca.

When ripe, Ambarella still has a sour taste, so Vietnamese people like to dip it in salt, or shake it with salt to balance the taste. Salted Ambarella is a popular snack on Vietnamese streets. In addition, Ambarella is also used to make salad with boneless chicken feet, which is extremely attractive.

 17. Eggfruit (Lekima)

Le ki ma is also known as chicken egg. The fruit has a slightly elongated round shape with a pointed tip at the bottom.

When still green, the fruit has white sap and an astringent taste. When ripe, the outer shell is dark yellow, the inside is bright yellow, and the seeds are dark brown.

When eaten, the fruit is soft and has a sweet, aromatic taste like a boiled egg yolk. However, if eaten for too long, it will feel bitter. The special thing about this fruit is that it never has worms. This fruit can be eaten fresh or blended to make smoothies.