20040607

get that thing away from me (or, name that fruit!, pt.2)


freshly caught langka 

this is my cousin jay. no, not the big bilious green thing, but the guy holding up the big bilious green thing. the big bilious green thing is langka--otherwise known as a jackfruit. a relative of the breadfruit, it originated in the ghats of india, and quickly spread throughout southeast asia, and the pacific. it is not related to the durian, which i kinda find hard to believe, as both are highly fragrant giant stinkin' things. although the jackfruit is more of a sweet, flowery stink as opposed to the rotting garbage stink of the durian.

a jackfruit can grow up to 80 pounds and 36 inches in length. the flesh of the jackfruit is pale to dark yellow, wrapped around brown ovoid seeds, and has a sort of sweet apple-banana-y taste with a jasmine finish. it's used in desserts, stewed, fried, baked and boiled. i have no use for it, which is why the specimen pictured is with jay and not on our kitchen table.

if you need some jackfruit, go to seaside mart and jay will sell a chunk to you.

4 comments:

Greetings from Silicon Valley.
I love your blog. I've never thought about blogging about food, and damn you beat me to it.
It's almost midnight here and reading your blog is making me hungry for a midnight snack..er..meal.
I don't know if you mentioned it on your blog, but I'm going to guess you're Filipino.
If you cook, would you mind sharing some recipes?
Anyhow, keep up the great work!
Leese

BTW I linked you from my site leeseonline.blogspot.com...i hope you wouldn't mind.
:-)

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

ooh eeeh, my first commentator! cool, you've made my day. if you like this blog, there's half a dozen or more better ones, specifically about asian food:http://cooking.houseonahill.net/, http://www.leitesculinaria.com/,http://onokinegrindz.typepad.com/, http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/, http://www.shiokadelicious.com/, http://www.mum-mum.info/...i could go on, but that's a lot to keep you busy...why *not* start one? i did because of the other ones i read. i'd read it!

salamat!