Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Do you Jackfruit?

We all went to the big market on the Monday of Memorial Day and got our fill of produce, crafts and loud noises. I can't remember how the subject of jackfruit came up but it did and then Tatyana managed to find the only jackfruit in the entire market. They said it came from Uganda. Do you like jackfruit? Honestly, I had never tried it before. Turns out (thanks to google) that its in the mullberry bush family and related to the breadfruit - but the breadfruit is a starchy version.

So here we are with a giant jackfruit (which can grow to be 80 pounds) and our biggest knife! It took a bit to cut into it and it had white, stringy, sticky juice that was close to impossible to clean off. It took Tatyana about an hour to clean out one little piece to eat. Holy smokes it was great but definitely took alot of elbow grease.

We ate the one little piece and sent the rest to O's school for his "bring a fruit to school" day!
We had to use the BIG knife!
Crazy looking insides - super sticky with gigantic seeds
interesting shape

4 comments:

katy said...

i'm pretty sure i've seen those (bread fruit for sure) at the Farmer's Market in Hilo. They are strange indeed. What part do you eat? And what do they taste like?

Unknown said...

Hi K -
You pop out the big seed and eat the yellow part around it. there is a lot of other wierd stringy parts that are really fiberous that you dont eat. Tastes a bit banana'ish - O loved them. Also, the beans were eating beans - so pretty and once cooked they didnt keep their color so well...xo S

katy said...

doesn't look like there is much fruit once you take the seeds out. would have never guessed bananaish, was thinking pineappleish ;)

Kaijuman said...

I thought the stringy parts were edible, but had to be cooked a fair bit first if the jackfruit is ripe.