The fruit of Thailand is the reason to go to Asia!
The range is so diverse that you can't help but turn to the internet for information - what and how to eat it!!! You can also ask the shop assistants themselves - how to eat it, it's a ripe fruit, it's sweet, as a synonym for ripeness. The locals' English is tight, so it will be easier for them to offer you a taste of whatever you point to. But be warned, it won't be washed and all the trays are placed along the roads. If you don't want to ask and try it on the spot, you can take absolutely nothing but a couple of pieces at a time. What you like, you'll take more next time. Below are some subjective taste sensations and personal experiences)
Important: In another country try all fruits, even the ones you know. Fruit tastes different in different soils and the apples that grow in our country will taste different there. Or mangoes and pineapples which you might have tasted in the supermarkets of your native countries are far from perfect and ripe at all! But here in the home country, they are perfectly ripe and sweet, they are so fragrant...
Most of Thailand's fruits will turn out to be a curiosity, a one-off exotic. But there are Mango-Bananas-Pineapples-Papaya fruits that can safely act as a meal replacement. These fruits can be eaten every day with great pleasure and benefit the body. A trip to Thailand can be called a Fitness trip. In my personal experience, in one month of eating the above-mentioned fruits, I ended up with 5 kg.
Thai mangoes are sweet, juicy, without a wiry flesh and a starchy taste. There is a slight sourness to it.
Try choosing yellow, unpeeled fruits. It will be difficult to fall for green and unpalatable ones. Even if the fruit is yellow and squeezed tight with your finger, it will still taste delicious in its own way. Such a fruit will just have a stronger sourness. Softer fruit will taste honeyed. Sourdough and broken fruit should be avoided as they will sour in the heat and may lead to a fermenting effect in the intestines, which may lead to gas. Green, unripe fruit are also on sale. They should be cut into slices and eaten with salt and spices, but this is a matter of taste.
Bananas are 'baby' bananas - sweet, flavourful but slightly starchy.
Thai bananas are quite tasty, especially when compared to those sold in our native countries. But they are inferior in taste to Sri Lankan bananas. In Sri Lanka, the choice of bananas is maximum.
Pineapples - flavourful juicy pulp with not much corrosive acidity)
Pineapples have a distinction for boy and girl. Boy is juicy pulp with more acidity and a tough core. It is used for juices and preserves which are taken to our supermarkets. Can also be found in the markets of Goa. In Thailand, "girl's pineapples" are sold everywhere and are exactly what is meant to be eaten raw/fresh. The pulp is very fragrant and soft, right down to the middle stem. Its juiciness is somewhat lower, but the fibres are very soft and easy to eat. Unlike the 'boys', those fibres are tough and get clogged in the teeth while eating. But the most important thing is the fruit acid. If one person eats a whole pineapple, the mucous membrane of the mouth is completely burned. A tingling sensation in the mouth can be observed from as early as the 2nd or 3rd ring. Pineapple - girl is eaten gently and you can safely eat 2-3 rings a day (if there are no contraindications to increased acidity of the stomach). Pineapple has a powerful fat-burning effect and forms the basis of a weight-loss diet.
Papaya - a juicy, sweet 'melon pumpkin'
Papaya is a meal replacement. It is very healthy and low in fructose. It provides a satiating effect, important for diets. It is a fat-burning fruit. The key is to choose a delicious papaya. But that's not a problem in Thailand, because the fruit is delicious, unlike in India. In India they may sell green, overripe, or not quite what you would expect, such as pineapple boys being passed off as edible. Papaya should be yellow or orange in colour (but not green!) and the seeds should be rolling and clattering inside. The papaya should not be soft and should be squeezed through your fingers. You can eat 2 pieces of papaya a day for sure!
Pitahaya is a water fruit. Tasteless contents with grains similar to dried poppy seeds.
It is considered a useful fruit in terms of its composition, but it is completely tasteless and incomprehensible to us. Its purpose in nature, the cactus flower, is to quench thirst. The fruit can replace a glass of water.
Sapodilla is a sweet pulp, similar to a dried date.
The fruit can be described as tasty, but you can't eat a lot of it. It must be well chosen - it should be soft to the touch, but the skin should not be damaged or peeled off with the slightest movement of the fingers.
The mangosteen is overpoweringly aromatic, more like a fragrance or perfume).
The fruit is an acquired taste. Not eaten in large quantities.
The pink apple is an analogue of the pitahaya, a water substitute
Tasteless in taste, similar to our unleavened apple. A favourite, a one-off fruit, or if you need to remove your thirst.
Lychees and Logan are the juiciest flesh, similar to grapes in consistency in a very dense peel.
You'll need something sharp to peel, you can't do it with your fingernails. At first, both fruits are a delight and seem like you'll eat them every day. It's sweet enough, to the point of being sugary. But in fact, they get boring quickly. 0.5-1 kg per head per week)
Drinking coconut is sweetened water!
Do not drink it when you are not thirsty! It's better to taste it outside while walking, just when you're thirsty for water. Otherwise it might even seem disgusting and you won't want to taste it again for a long time. In Thailand we bought it in a fruit shop, and tasted it already in the hotel room with all the fruit. In Sri Lanka we tried it again, under the same circumstances...same result. And what was our surprise when we walked about 6 km in the sun in Hampi (India) without a single drop of water and found the only source of water near the Virupaksha temple - a drinkable coconut. The sample turned out to be such that we drank two each)) Drinking coconuts are delicious from now on!!!
Note: drinking coconut should not be confused with eating coconut. Drinking coconut is a very young green fruit and there is no pulp. But there is a lot of liquid in it - up to 2 cups. The edible fruit has very little liquid in it, a couple of tablespoons.
Sala snake fruit - similar to the mangosteen in some ways. In short, didn't like it and didn't remember it)
This is not the whole list of fruits of Thailand, but only a third or a quarter! Something we didn't try in Thailand, but then continued on to Sri Lanka, as written about in another article. Something we tried but didn't take a personal photo) At a guess, more positive comments can be added in favour of rambutan and passion fruit. Durian is the only fruit we didn't understand at all and haven't decided to try again yet)
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