The best part of traveling is to try the food of all the places we visited. So when you are in Borneo, quenched your thirst with its juicy tropical fruits and rich in taste. Third largest island in the world, Borneo are blessed with many beautiful and wonderful tropical fruits, some are what most of you have seen in your local grocer stores such as banana, mango and papaya, be ready to be astounded by some of the most queer looking fruits you can find in the northern island of Borneo, Sabah.
Our first pick is Belimbing, known as its scientific name ‘Averrhoa Carambola’ or also the starfruit as when you cut it crosswise you get the star shape. Starfruit is sweet and juicy, with sour undertone almost similar to the taste of green apples. Starfruit can use for cooking, and also best as juicy drink.
Next pick is tarap a fruit that is native to Borneo, with the size of a melon tarap has soft rubbery spikes that are easy on the hands and to open a ripe tarap you would simply just press it open and the sweet milky smell of the fruits are very inviting. There are many small fruit buds in it, careful when you are eating it as there are seeds in each fruit buds. Tarap is also well-like as a snake where it is deep-fried with flour served with afternoon tea and coffee. You will not be able to find tarap all year round as it is a seasonal fruit, usually common around end of the year.
A bizarre looking fruit with snake-like skin, it grows in cluster at the base of the very short-stemmed palm tree. Do not get the scaly skin of the salak put you off from giving it a go, when you pealed the skin it reveals solid fruit inside. It feels more like waxy apple, tasty like a pear and rich with vitamins and minerals!
Durian is not foreign to many with its pungent smell most are quickly put off by it. Durian has hard thorny shell, yet its fruits are soft, and has a sweet creamy taste. Durian fruits can comes in variety of colours from red to orange, though the most common one are the creamy peach to yellowish tone. Southeast Asian are totally fond with the durian fruit, with more demand Durian has been regarded as the most expensive fruit in the southeast Asia region with some durian species such as the ‘Musang King’ could fetch up to RM 80 per kilogram, no wonder it is known as the ‘King’.
