Fruiti Tutti

If you know me - you know I LOVE fruits.  Especially anything with bananas! Living in a tropical country is a perfect place for a fruit lover because they have so many fruits all year long :) And thank goodness Alo decided to "splurge" months ago and buy us a blender since non of our electronics from the US would work here so I can make constant smoothies!

I will have to say that before we moved here, my old landlord in DC constantly talked about the Mangos in Indonesia and how amazing they were supposed to be. I'll have to say they don't knock me over, but maybe I'm just not a Mango lover at heart. But they do have a couple different kinds here and they are offered on most dessert menus at restaurants.

The best part of all is that the grocery store KemChicks (which reminds me alot of a whole foods but in Indonesia) will cut any fruit and package it for you with no additional cost.  So I can pick up a large watermelon and take it to the counter and tell them i'd like to buy half of it chopped up.  How amazing is that? I guess if you are like me and HATE to cut up any fruits then you'd be just as excited. I've decided Whole Foods or Trader Joe's really needs to adopt this idea.  Granted I will say there are always at least 3 people behind the counter cutting up a storm so it does take some man power to have this kind of operation.  Anyways - brilliant idea in my opinion. Quick, healthy, cheap fruits cut up everyday for lunch - yes please!

Back to bananas - they have so many different types of Indonesian bananas but I can't keep up with the names.  They are huge, regular ones like in the states, medium ones, and tiny ones.  A popular street food dessert is Pisang Goreng. (pisang means banana, goreng means fried).  Indonesians love to fry up anything so it's no surprise that take a healthy yummy banana and fry it up in oil. So much of the street food is either fried noodles or a meat or vegetable fried up! (are you arteries hurting yet??).

Dragon fruit, Salak (Snake fruit), Starfruit and cocunuts are probably my favorite fruits from Indonesia. You can see what they all look like below:

Dragon fruit (there is also a kind that is the same but bright pink inside)

Salak (They call is Snake Fruit because of the scaley skin)

Belimbing or Carambola (Starfruit)

Here are some others I've tried :

Mangosteen- "Queen of all fruits" (good but the purple/red outter skin dyes your fingers and gets everywhere)

Rambutan (the name in Indonesian literally means "hairy" - hints the look and feel of the fruit)

Durian is my LEAST favorite fruit. Durian is the "King of Fruit" in Indonesia and is known for it's stinging scent, spiny skin and soft fruit. It has the fowlest smell ever (in my opinion!). I don't really know how to describe it other than gross. Indonesians just love it though, but you always know when someones eating it or it's around because it stinks up the whole area.

I almost forgot to mention the fruit juices. In almost any restuarant they offer all kinds of fresh fruit juices. My favorite is the watermelon juice or melon juice.  It's served cold and tastes like a million bucks. So simple - it's just watermelon put in the blender and served cold - trust me you want to try it!  They have so many drink choices from juices to smoothies to iced coffees, etc. This is always available in most restaurants since it's a Muslim country and most people don't drink alcohol so they offer lots of other options.

There are SO many more fruits but these are just a few. I'm not a fan of Indonesian food (haven't you wondered why i've never wrote about it? ha) but I do love their fruits!