The last bite!

I left the last of the jack fruit in the mini bar fridge and its calling me!

I forget how sweet and juicy the fruits are in Asia until I'm back there again - just off the plane, standing on the street no more than a few steps from the hotel door, holding a plastic bag of freshly cut fruit, skewer in hand and with juice dripping down my chin! Now that's a little slice of foodie heaven.

Depending on what's in season, and sometimes that takes a day or two to establish, a daily 'bag' of fruit is usually my first purchase in the morning. I know we now have fruit carts in the Melbourne CBD but the crowd gathered around the fruit vendors in Penang had a whole social scene going on and sometimes serving a cultural interloper like me was not high on the agenda, besides we never know how to 'do it' (eat fruit without it dripping down the chin!) properly anyway. But despite not being able to contribute to the gossip of the day I always join in.

So jackfruit is not exactly juicy, in fact textually its a bit rubbery but the pineapplie bananarie flavour is yum. And the bananas are always better. And then there are guava's, mangosteens, rambutans......

I must still have 'holiday brain' because the other day when I was buying some Asian goods I spotted some Jackfruit in the freezer and added it to my basket - no no no its not the same as fresh. Melbourne is indeed an incredible food city but there's a good reason I munch my way around the globe whenever I can! (and of course I gleam a bit of history and expand my cultural understanding in the process.)