Borneo Wild Jungle Mango-Mangifera Pajang Kostermans

Wild jungle mango-mangifera pajang kostermans- a new hybrid clone with the tree from the Borneo forest produces a fruit the size of a canon ball. This one weighs more than 900 g.

The old fruit from the jungle cultivated by villagers in Asajaya.  These fruits are cultivated by seed.

This one weighs more than 300 g.

Cutting the fruit vertically.

Peeling off the thick skin to reveal the bright yellow fibrous sweet sour mango

To the Malays of Sarawak (a state of Malaysia in the island of Borneo), this brown wild fruit the size of a canon ball, is called 'asam embang'.The Ibans of Sarawak call it 'buah mawang'. In Sabah, it is known as 'bambangan'. This fruit is botanically known as mangifera pajang.  It is a wild fruit from the jungle and its availability today is due to their cultivation by the people  in Asajaya.

This fruit smells like the kuini (Mangifera adorato Griff), a popular Malaysian garden fruit.  The difference is the skin is brown and thick.  The fruit has to be cut on top across and vertically before it is peeled off.  The flesh is yellow and tasted sweet if the fruits falls to the ground but taste sour when it has a bit of green hue meaning it is not ripe yet.

Buah Mawang is eaten raw as a salad or eaten as an ulam (eating raw with sambal belacan or shrimp paste sauce). It is also cooked with fish. The flesh is fibrous and is cooked with chillies to give it the pineapple taste. As much as this fruit is the size of a canon ball, there are other varieties the size of a tomato.

Buah Mawang can be kept for a week because of its thick skin. It can be preserved in a jar. Even the leaves of this fruit can be eaten as an 'ulam'. A member of the anacardiaceae family, this seasonal fruit starts fruiting twice a year during the months of Jan-Feb and July to August.