Victoria and I went to Granville Island today to have a poke around and managed to come back with a handful of nice surprises. At my favorite fruit stand, we spotted Snake Fruit, also called Salak. Now, searching the web I see that there are a couple common varieties: Bali, Pondoh with a whole bunch of cultivars out there. The fruit grows in clusters on a palm tree found in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Snake Fruit
The skin of the snake fruit looks remarkably like snake skin, and is quite dry. The scales can be sharp, and I managed to poke myself while tearing one open even drawing blood, but it was worth it. After pinching the skin and pulling it off [It has the texture of a lychee or longan], you’ll find three lobes of soft flesh with a large smooth inedible seed [which also reminds me of a longan].
Snake Fruit, with its bum showing
The flesh has a very distinctive flavour, and a nice balance of sweet and tart, and is quite musky and aromatic. Some people describe the meat of the fruit as dry and crisp like an apple, but the snake fruit that I have are quite juicy and moist.
At $6.99/pound, snake fruit was too expensive for me to want to buy regularly, but it was nice to try once.
