Interlude: Traditional Khmer Experience #2 (Weird Snot-Like Fruit)

It goes without saying that Cambodian food is rife with odd tastes and textures. Well, the same is true for the fruit here. They come in all shapes and sizes, some with spikes, others with scales. Just walking out along the streets, it’s easy to come across all sorts of vendors selling wonderful portions of mangoes, dragonfruit, bananas, and yes…durian (see above picture…it's other wise known as the big spiky fruit that smells like dirty socks).

I’m lucky enough that there is a wonderful collection of fruit vendors just right outside my guesthouse. These days, I’ve certainly been eating more than my fair share of fruit, especially since it’s quite hard to get any in the U.S. Some of my favorites include those that…well…literally look like gelatinous globs of snot when the outer shell is removed.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:



Pictured above is a fruit called a rambutan. I’ve never seen this outside of Southeast Asia. It’s rather hairy on the outside, but the fruit inside is firm and a bit slimy. Biting in to it releases a burst of juice that is quite sweet and refreshing. To me, the flesh of a rambutan feels a bit firmer than a lychee, although the taste itself is pretty similar. Here’s a picture of what it looks like on the inside:



The other slimy mucous-y fruit I’ve had is called “tnaut.” Tnaut is a special fruit that comes from the palm trees around here. It’s a popular treat for people trekking around the temples of Angkor. Basically, it comes in a hard-shelled fruit that looks like this:



When you cut it open, there's this slick, slippery fruit that easily slides down the throat.

Texture-wise it is somewhat slimier than a lychee or rambutan, and it’s a bit messy to eat if you nibble at it. Curiously enough, there’s not a whole lot of taste. But that said, slurping a few of these down is definitely nice and refreshing when it’s sunny and close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside!

Stay tuned for my next “Khmer Food” entry, where I profile the copious amounts of strange chip flavors to be found in the local grocery stores!