Last week I brought you the first of our Weekly Challenges, the Sardine Donut. It was not an easy one to start with, although the results were not as bad as they could have been. Or even as they should have been.
Best of all, the donut didn’t scare us off, and last Friday afternoon (great time for a challenge, with The Engineer finishing work at 11am), we headed out to the Seria Market for challenge number two. This one was set by The Engineer, and was for me. And I have to admit, I was grateful for how nice he was to me after the Sardine Donut.
My challenge was to purchase a fruit that I could not identify, and try it.
Me and my Weekly Challenge.
Photo by The Engineer.
I headed out to the market, expecting to browse around, find all sorts of interesting things, and have to make a tough decision. But apparently I have been learning some things in the past few weeks, because there were very few things I hadn’t seen before. As well as things I have known about for years like watermelon, pineapple, pears, and oranges, I saw rose apples, dragon fruit, pomelos, and longan fruit. But none of these met the criteria. I could identify them, and I knew what they were. It was pretty easy to find new vegetables (there’s some crazy stuff out there), but fruit was more of a challenge. Eventually, I did find a few new things. And since The Engineer set such an easy one, I decided to step it up a little and buy three different fruits (that, and I just plain couldn’t decide…)
A selection of fruit to try.
Photo by The Engineer.
When we got home (after stopping for an iced milo for The Engineer, and some Easter supplies) we got into them. First up was the big yellow guy at the front. Initial google searches suggested it could be durian (famously stinky fruit that is very popular in South East Asia). I certainly thought the smell was not too pleasant, and the pictures lined up. But once The Engineer gave it a go, he said “Are you sure it’s not jackfruit?”) and further googling suggested that he might just be right…
The jackfruit was weird. It had a strong, sweet, sticky smell and flavour. It was not entirely unpleasant, but not entirely pleasant either. As someone not too fond of many tropical fruits, I would certainly not be putting it on the shopping list, but I didn’t stop after the first bite.
Next up we tried the one in the middle. And as soon as I cut it open, I realised my mistake. Here’s why:
Turns out I was familiar with this one…
Photo by The Engineer.
It was a passionfruit!
The passionfruit was delicious. I have never been a huge fan at home, but this one was super juicy, and slightly tangy (probably due to being slightly unripe). This I would definitely continue to buy. And it was the cheapest too!
The third one was a little more tricky. Some people might have been able to identify it straight away, but I’d never seen one before. When I cut it open, we discovered it was pink inside, but searches for “tropical fruit green outside pink inside” took a while to yield results…
This one was a bit harder to work out…
Photo by The Engineer.
Eventually we discovered that a) it was a guava, and that b) it was not quite ripe yet. The seeds were still extremely hard, and the flesh was crisper and less sweet than it should have been. It was not unpleasant tasting, but it was hard to eat, and not very satisfying. Lucky for us, we bought two of these, and the other one is sitting ripening on the bench as we speak. Hopefully we get a more pleasant guava-experience soon.
And that was that. This was not a difficult challenge really (although, with different fruit, it potentially could have been), but it was fun. I certainly wouldn’t have picked up most of these fruit without a reason. I never would have known that the best passionfruit I’ve ever tasted were right under my nose. And really, I can never complain about a market-shopping experience.
Finally, because no eating challenge post is complete without a stupid tasting face, here’s me:
Me and my guava tasting face.
Photo by The Engineer.
The Engineer's Wife 
Hi there, I stumbled upon your blog while searching for blogs under the brunei tag.
Yes, the fruit is a jackfruit, or nangka as we call it. Usually, we don’t slice it like you did there. We peel off the skin by hand, and then take it out a fleshy pod at a time. A durian has a much stronger smell, and is a spiky fruit.
Thanks! It was already sliced when we bought it actually. But it’s good to know how to deal with it next time (if there is a next time)