Mangosteen

Mangosteen, this is my favorite fruit. I can eat 5 kgs non-stop. Too sad it's only available for 2-3 months from April - July. At its peak, it can cost as low as 20 Baht per kilogram. I bought this one for 25 Baht/Kg from Phayao market yesterday.
Mangosteen has hard deep purple shell with soft inner shell. As you can see, it has 4 small petals on top, look like crowns, so we called in "Queen of fruits." The hardest part of eating mangosteen is how to remove its shell without bruising its soft white flesh inside. From my experience, there are two ways to open it, the first one is to use a knife by slitting its rind in the middle and open it.


The other, which I used, is to pull a branch(? I don't know what to call it in English) in the middle of petals. After you pulled that branch, the rind will be easily crack down and then you can see white, soft, sweat & sour flesh.



Not only its flesh is tasty, containing calcium, phosphorus, iron and some vitamins (that what I heard of, but not confirmed), but its rind is also used to heal bruises and wounds, fresh or blister. Mangosteen's rind has substances called Tannin, Xanthone, and Mangostin. Tannin help a wound to heal faster, Xanthone acts as an anti-fungus substance to prevent skin disease and ringworm, and Mangostin is anti-bacteria substance. It also used in cosmetic such as acne soap and facial wash. Anyway, I don't care how many benefits it has, the best part is the white sweat flesh. And by the way, don't eat its seeds, it's not edible.

Longkong

I ate this fruit several weeks ago, just one day after my first blog. I was just too lazy to post a new one... Anyway, here I am. Longkong is a tropical fruit, grown mostly in southern of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. It's in the same species of langsat. In fact, they are very similar, except langsat's skin is more yellow, smoother, and its seeds are more bitter. Longkong used to be an expensive fruit, however, in recent years, its price came down. Now it's very affordable at around 30-50 Baht per kilogram. That day, I went to a fresh food market in Lampang province, and bought longkong (1/2 kg), mangosteen (3 kg), and rambutan (1 kg). I ate them all within 2 days hehe. Unfortunately, because of my laziness, I only took the picture of longkong.

Longkong has abundant of vitamin B, phosphorus, and I think it may have some vitamin C because it's sour. After peeled out the skin, you could see translucent meat inside. The meat is sweet, tasted little sour, soft, and slimy. If you find small seeds inside, you can also eat them. But the bigger the seeds, the bitter they taste.

Buying longkong is somewhat like buying lottery. Sometimes you get a very sweet one, sometimes very sour. Normally, I'll buy only a small amount, not over 1 kg, so if it come out bad, I'll not be so disappointed. Luckily, this one is acceptable, tough not the best. But I finished them within 5 minutes anyway. Mangosteen and rambutan were so good that I didn't want to waste my time taking their photos. I promise to go for mangosteen next time (aka queen of fruit, in Thailand, we left the king for the most lethal fruit on earth, durian!!)