Continuing with the small series on tropical fruits, today's image is thanks to aegisd@Flickr (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). It was very clever to place the rambutan on a platter with a clover illustration for a mirroring effect. Thank you!
Julia Morton's Fruits of Warm Climates once again provides one of the best online references: rambutan. Rambutan is native to Indonesia, though it has been subsequently introduced into cultivation throughout much of the tropics. Its family, the Sapindaceae, also includes the southern China natives lychee and longan.
Morton refers to a number of cultivars of rambutan; noting that this appears to have been cultivated in Thailand, I'm going to assume this fruit is from one of the cultivated varieties, but I'll have to leave it to others with more expertise to determine the name of the one in this photograph (if that's possible on fruit and origin alone).
For more photographs, I'll again suggest the USDA's Pacific Basin Tropical Plant Genetic Resources unit's images of its accessions: Nephelium. Wikipedia draws some of its information from Morton's work, though there are some particularly interesting additional tidbits regarding the reproduction of rambutan plants if you read the entire article: Nephelium lappaceum.
I had this one, too, along with the Marang.
Opening the fruit is deceptively easy. The spines aren't sharp at all.
There is a large seed occupying most of the space inside, but the seed has a thich fleshy outer coat and that's the good stuff.
It tasted like a very sweet tropical version of a grape.
I was unable to remove the outer flesh from the seed, so I basically sucked all the juice from the good part and spit the whole thing out at the end.
You can find them on the mainland US in both irradiated (Hawai'ian) and non-irradiated (Guatemalan?) form. I tried some of the latter last fall and found it similar to a lychee, with maybe a little more interesting flavor.
This current topic of tropical fruit is fascinating!! Especially with people posting about what it is like to eat the fruit. I look forward to more.
There are many varieties of rambutan. The name is derived from the word "rambut", which in Malay means "hair" - hence, hairy fruit. I have always thought that it is native to Malaysia. (But then, I am partial, as that's my country of origin).
There is a very large variety of Rambutan in cultivation - we grew several back in our old home in Malaysia. These vary in the growth habit of the tree, to the appearance and taste of the fruits.
Most bear fruits which are red, but we have grown varieties which have yellow skinned fruits. Although, those offered for sale, for obvious reasons, are sweet, there are also some are exceeding sour types. Some have fresh that shell off the seed easily, others have fresh stuck hard to the seed. For those of you who eat a lot of rambutans, lychees, and longans, the flavour of these three different fruits are different and distinctive.
Yummy! Rambutans are one of my favorite fruits from Asia. But I liked mangosteins even better. Now they are touting them as some sort of health benefit.
I hope you keep going with this topic-- it's bringing back a lot of delicious memories. I know there are some other weird fruits from Asia because somewhere I have a poster of fruits from Thailand (but it's in Thai). I remember one that's kind of crunchy like an apple, but not as flavorful.
I have quite a bit collection of rambutan trees, but I don't think you have seen a spineless rambutan which the elderly Malay people from Malaysia call it rambutan pacat or kikir buntal. The Melanau natives from Sarawak call it Serait while the Iban call it Mujau. But spineless rambutan is not a commercial variety. The fruit is small in size, about 2-3 cm, and have acidic taste. It is an endangered species nowadays. It is not from the same species of Nephelium lappaceum. It is Nephelium maingayi, Hiern.
Is there anyone from your readers know if the seed of the rambutan is edible. I come from the philippines, and there is a certain region in my country where they have a rambutan specie that has smaller seed. They dry these and eat it. They say it taste like almonds.
Any coment will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
The seed of the rambutan is edible, but I have only seen a friend´s dog eat them in any quantity - he loves them. I have eaten several. They have a slightly unpleasant beany taste and not great, but should be a good source for livestock feed, and the production per acre is high. The related Pulasan (Nephelium mutabile) seed is MUCH better, without the beany taste. I had read somewhere that they are preferred. I roasted a couple and they were VERY similar to so-called soy nuts, crunchy. I would think the nutrition would be very high, too. I think they have potential for development as a nut either for human or livestock feed. While quality varies, some pulasan are larger than rambutan,and in CR both bloom and produce some 10 weeks before rambutan, so should have a great market. So far only inferior varieties have been brought here, very acid and small. Not for long.
Jesse Blenn
(Quinta Diamante exotic fruit and orchid farm)
Las Tumbas de P.Z.
Costa Rica
Very tasty! I ate these in Puerto Rico, quite exotic and interesting.