Jackfruit.
Clockwise from top left: a jackfruit chunk wrapped in plastic, Thai rice crispy, Thai bananas, a sugar cane stick, a star fruit and a coconut
A beloved fruit since my childhood in Thailand turns out to be a forbidden eat. Asian and ethnic food stores in the U.S. carry it subject to seasonal availability. Florida, for example, is now in summer experiencing afternoon thunderstorms and high humidity. (Tomorrow is the Fourth of July.) This is when it is like Thailand. It even smells like Thailand. My American-born and-bred family who has visited the country said so one day when a jackfruit chunk came home with me in a grocery bag from 1st Oriental Supermarket in West Orlando. (The store run by Chinese Vietnamese entrepreneurs carries a large selection of Asian products and fresh produce and offers a take-out food counter with a $3.50 lunch menu and excellent roast pigs, if you wonder where to find the fruit around here.) Its aroma (and that of the durian fruit) reminds one of a trip to the Land of Smiles.
At $1.89 per lb. isn’t too bad, but the heavy rind and skin make eating a jackfruit rather a expensive habit.
About a jackfruit allergy, my symptom is only an itchy throat. Although at least a couple of people reported in their blogs that their throats became swollen and hives developed where their skin touched jackfruit. They stopped eating it altogether. Getting jackfruit meat out of its filament is a sticky business. A knife to cut must be coated with cooking oil to prevent the fruit sap from glueing to the skin or clothes. Separating jackfruit pits from their yellow edible bulbs is a different story, it’s slippery.
Fruit that heals and could kill.
Since getting my seasonal fix is not too lethal, a compromise is to eat just two to three pieces in one sitting at a time. Unlike itchiness on skin that can be treated with a cream or ointment that relieves that unbearable sensation, to emolliate any flare-up caused by allergens to internal organs is more complicated. Eating jackfruit these days could be an adventure that I’m both speechless and breathless. My throat starts to close up.
And it cost almost $6 for about 20 pieces. Costly and almost-deadly.
globalsquatter 