TARAP, A WILD FRUIT WILDLY DELICIOUS

My family is always in dismay whenever I do my weekly visit to the market as I tend to buy more fruits than anything else. I would normally depend on Mr Hubs to buy fish or meats as he makes better choices while I buy vegetables and fruits. Especially now that it is the fruit season, you’d find me struggling with bags of all sorts of fruits like langsat, rambutans, even durians, mangosteens and tarap. 

For those not familiar with tarap fruit, it is a wild fruit and native to Borneo and I believe is not found anywhere else. The skin is spiky but spikes are not hard like the durians, rather rough and colours of the ripe fruit may vary from greenish to yellowish.

It has a strong scent (but not anywhere like durians) and the flesh when ripe is soft, sweet and white. Ok, not a good description and you still have no idea what it looks like? See pictures please :)

Tarap fruit

When the fruit is ripe, the outer skin can easily be pulled apart and it would then reveal the delicious fruit inside. The fruit comes in seeds and each seed has a layer of the soft white flesh covering it. The flesh can be eaten direct from the fruit or you can scrap the flesh into a bowl or a fancy container, have it chilled and viola….a great dessert! 

tarap flesh... ahemm...this one looks a little too ripe.. 
No need to eat the seeds :)

I’ve also tried placing them in a freezer and eat them just before they freeze. Sinking one’s teeth into the succulent fruit with just a hint of frost is like a little bite of heaven!  Alternatively, one can also make fritters out of it much like making banana fritters.

So if you intend to visit Sabah, come in October or November and you will find them everywhere in the open market or ‘tamu’ even those roadside stalls. They would be sold side by side with the other seasonal fruits like durians, mangosteens, langsat, rambutans.  

durians, the King of fruits 

 langsat

 rambutans

mangosteen

A good place to stop by if you are on the way up to Kundasang where the mahestic mountain, Mount Kinabalu is situated, is Pekan Nabalu.  Just head to any of the stall selling tarap, request them to open them for you, and you can sample them there and then. Usually a medium-sized fruit will cost RM5.00 each. I’ve come across Japanese and Korean tourists even visitors from Peninsula gleefully enjoying the fruit. 

Just a word of caution, if you are not a fan of soft sweet fruit with a strong scent, tarap is not for you.  Why do I say that...well ‘cause I know of people not really keen on them ..hahaha…just like how they do not like cempedak or durians.  Oh well, one man’s food is another man’s poison. 

Tarap anyone?  :D