This is jackfruit, which is a really large, heavy fruit… in fact, I read that it is the largest tree fruit in the world, and one fruit can grow up to 100 pounds! Most aren’t usually that big! But, the size makes it a little more difficult to buy because unless you’re throwing a huge party you’ll need to find a place that has one opened and just buy some of the “bulbs” taken out of the main fruit. It’s one of my favorite fruits here, so I buy it when I can. We usually buy 6-8 bulbs prepackaged. It has a very sweet “mixed fruit” taste – bananas, apples, peaches, mangoes … it’s kind of hard to describe! You can see on the crosscut fruit picture how the “bulbs” are positioned inside the fruit, there were probably 12-15 pieces around the main center “seed”? Then you also see in the other picture that each small segment has a hard seed in the center (which I read can also be cooked and eaten but I haven’t tried it!). I’ve had fresh and dried and you are supposed to be able to cook with it also. The tree pictured is from mid-May last year, in Shenzhen (OCT Loft area). I certainly wouldn’t want to be underneath one of these when it falls! And this tree was just along a city street! You are supposed to harvest them before they fall; by the time they drop, they are overripe.
