The terap fruit is endemic in Borneo.  In Sabah, it is called the Marang fruit.

More pictures of the Terap fruit taken using my handphone.

It has been a long time since I posted my last article.  Today, as I make my way to the jungle produce weekend market, I found two interesting and amazing fruits.  One is the bright pink jungle avocado like fruit called "Engakala" and the other the "buah terap" or the "Terap" fruit. Today is the 4th day of September 2016.  I was very surprised to see both fruits.  The Engkala fruit is eaten by washing it and soaking it in warm water and eaten with a pinch of salt.  The seed can be replanted.  The cupule is thrown away before dipping the fruit in warm water.  A Terap fruit will emit an aromatic scent when it is ripe for eating.  The fruit is opened by prising open the skin.The flesh of the fruit is white, soft, and sweet.  The terap fruit  has a delicate and refreshing taste like an apple custard and also the taste of jack fruit.  The price for one is RM6.00. So, come visit Sarawak at this time of the year till the year ends.

Customers selecting the ripe Engkala fruit.  On the right is the unripe fruit.

The unripe Engkala fruit.

Borneo fruit- Sarawak's Asam Raba (Mangifera Griffithii)

Buah Lakum-Sarawak wild edible berry

A close up of the Lakum black berry

I asked a fruit seller what is this fruit which looks like green and black grapes.  He laughed and said this is the Unggu Sarawak or Sarawak grapes.  He grew this fruit himself in his garden.  "Unggu ini masam.  Kalau kamu makan buah ini, badan kamu akan gatal", he said, meaning "This fruit is sour.  If you eat it, your body will be itchy".
The fruit seller noticed I bought tuna fish.  He suggested I buy this Lakum fruit to cook asam fish.  In the past, he said the Lakum fruit was used to cook fish before asam paya was discovered.
This fruit is a cluster like a bunch of grapes.  The fruit is smaller than grapes.  It looks like cherry but the size of the fruit is the size of a berry.  I touched the ripe fruit which is the darker black colour and it was soft, tender and delicate.  It feels juicy.The lakum fruit is used as a bait to catch the baung fish.  It grows on a creeping vine.  In fact, this fruit is called cissus repens Lam, a wild edible berry of Borneo.  It is also known as the vitis diffusa Miq.
A unripe fruit is light green in colour.The berry is spherical concave in shape with length of 10-12 mm (which is shorter) and width of 13-17 mm.  There is a seed sometimes two seeds in a berry.  Lukam is from the genus vitis, meaning it came from the same category as the grapes except that its family is vitaceae.  In the jungle, it is found near streams.  It is described as a specie of tropical rainforest vine in the grape family. It was known as vitis triloba Roth, an outdated name, in the past.  Lakum or Lakom is an iban name for this fruit.  This fruit contains sucrose, glucose, fructose.  It has very low sugar content. It is one of a list of vitis grapes recommended for wine making.

Buah Lakum

Growing Mamey Sapote in Sarawak, Borneo

Morgan scratching the skin of Sarawak grown mamey sapote fruit to check whether it is ready to eat.  A ripe fruit will show a papaya orange red flesh.

Three weeks ago, I saw an unusual fruit at the Kubah Ria jungle produce market.  I get to know the name of the fruit from farmer, Morgan Chua.  The name is mamey sapote.  This fruit, a native fruit of Cuba, attracted a lot of attention from tourists and the locals.  They will snap pictures, buy it to taste this foreign fruit, perhaps, grow it in their gardens.
Most are snapped up.  I was lucky this time to capture the image of this fruit in video before they are gone.

 According to Morgan, he planted this fruit tree in his parents' land in the outskirts of Kuching city after a friend gave him a plant he brought back from Cuba.  It was washed clean of soil and wrapped with a piece of wet tissue and an aluminium foil.

This plant grew into a tree six years later and had been producing fruits for the fifth consecutive year.  A tree will yield more than a hundred fruits with a fruit weighing an average of 1.5 kilo to a maximum weight of 2.5 kilo a fruit.  It will take the fruit 4-5 months to mature after flowering.
A ripe fruit is detected by scratching the skin.  The flesh will show a papaya orange red colour when the fruit is ripe.  The texture of this fruit is smooth. The fruit is ready for eating after 3 days of harvesting it. It is cut in half, the seed removed and the flesh scooped out with a spoon.

Morgan told me his foreign customers had seen a similar fruit in Hawaii but it was very much smaller.  The Cuban specie is large.  Morgan attributed the quality of the fruit to Cuba's advanced organic farming technology.

Many attempts had been made to plant this fruit tree by seed propagation by other interested fruit growers but with no positive results.

This fruit is not seasonal.  It bears fruit the whole year through. This fruit is rich in potassium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, protein, vit A, vit C, calcium, iron, Vit B6, magnesium, manganese, riboflavin, niacin and vit E.

Morgan shows off  the last remaining mamey sapote with his customer who bought it.

Borneo fruit-The terap fruit of Asajaya(Artocarpus Adoratissimus)

This is the terap fruit native only to the island of Borneo.  In Sabah, it is known as the marang fruit.  There are other names.  Green pedalai, madang, tarap, timadang.  The botanical name for this fruit is artocarpus odoratissimus.  It is related to the cempedak and breadfruit families.  This fruit emit a strong sweet scent coming from the rind, a signal telling us the fruit is ripe for eating.  The rind has soft spines.  The fruit is prised open to reveal small white arils which tastes like custard apple.  A ripe fruit will fall to the ground and split open.  The seed is like the cempedak seed except that it is white. Like the cempedak seed, the seed of the terap fruit is edible by boiling.

Some say this fruit tastes like the cempedak fruit-very sweet and tasty. In Borneo, it is found in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. These fruits are cultivated in Sadong village in Asajaya. In times of abundance, the fruit are sold quickly with values rated according to their sizes.  The small fruit will be sold for RM5, a medium size RM7 and a large one for RM10.

Sarawak Wild Durian-Durian Nissa (Durio Oxleyanus Griff)

The locals in Sarawak call this durian 'nissa'.  In other parts of Malaysia, it is called 'durian isu' or 'durian sukang' in Sabah. This is a wild jungle durian.  It is probably the best of all jungle durians. This wild durian is smaller than other species of durians.  It is round and is the size of a sepak takraw ball.

 It has very long sharp thorns. Unlike commercial durians which have five compartments, this one has four.  The fruit is very sweet and aromatic.  Some say it tastes like vanilla.  Some say it tastes like almonds. This one is found growing wild in the jungle of Serian district. This durian is found throughout the island of Borneo and in Peninsula Malaysia.

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We have a bumper harvest of durians towards the end of 2013.  The durian season was at its peak in November. The wild durians are more expensive than the commercial ones.  It is sold for RM20 for 5 small ones or the same price for 4 .  

Is there any takers? You will probably eat four pieces in a fruit.

Borneo fruits-Sarawak crystal longan

This is the crystal fruit of Kuching city.  It is not a new fruit.  It is an old native fruit of Malaysia known as 'kasai' or 'matoa'.  This fruit is also known as the crystal longan or the crystal lychee.  Some local people call it 'dragon's eyes'.  Some say it tastes like longan.  Some say it tastes like rambutan.  The fruit looks like the colour of mangosteen with its dark red purplish colour.  To eat it, fruit sellers will teach us to crush two fruit in the palm of our hand.  Some would break its shell with a mortar or hammer.  The name 'crystal' stuck with us as the flesh is yellowish translucent, like a citrine crystal.  The fruit has moderate sweetness.  That is why it is popular with people who have diabetes.  This fruit has high economic potential with a kilo fetching a price of RM15.00 a kilo. The seed is like a longan-hard and enamel like.

Because of its catchy name, a young sapling will fetch a price of RM25.00.  People are keen to try out new fruit trees. Unknown to them, the kasai fruit tree can grow to great heights with its fruits perched very high on top of the trees. This fruit is widely cultivated in Lundu, a coastal village at the southern tip of Sarawak, probably because a timberman was so taken in by the fruit in Papua New Guinea that he came back and grew it.  This fruit is known as the Fijian longan in this neighbouring country.  The scientific name for this fruit is pometia pinnata from the sapindaceae family.

Some smashed it on the table.  Some stepped on it.  I used a karate chop to smash it open.