The Spiny Rambutan Episode

This tropical fruit has a spiky exterior, but its heart is mild and refreshingly sweet. Anney and Lauren dig into the botany and history of rambutan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Protection of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie
Rees and I'm Lauren voc Obam, and today we have
an episode for you about rhombatan. Yes. Wow, look up
pictures for this one. All right, Yeah, it's fun. It's
so fun. Yes, a lot of you have suggested this one.

(00:30):
I I am clueless on it. Honestly. I feel like
I've seen them. I've seen them, um, and I think
I've had I think I might have had somebody had
pre peeled them before, because they're kind of like a
white ball once you get out of the wild outside. Um.

(00:55):
But that's that's kind of the extent of my knowledge
before doing this research. Okay, I've I've definitely had some
rhombaton as like a like a topping on like like
shaved ices. Um. And possibly it's it's closely related to
like to like a light chy lung gun situation, and

(01:17):
I've definitely had a bunch of light chy uh. But yeah,
there was certainly a time where I think I was
at like I don't like the Beeford Highway farmer's market
or something, and I was like, what the heck is
that I'm buying some and figuring out how to eat them,
which is one of my favorite things to do. Uh, Like,
especially before we started doing this show and we started

(01:39):
like reading about a lot of a lot of things
that I haven't had a lot of exposure to. Like
that was sort of my my way of finding out
about new stuff. I would just be like, I don't
know what that is, but I want to eat it. Um,
let's figure out how, let's figure out how m hm.
And it is very high catching. Yeah yeah, so that
that that that makes sense? Um. And I also have

(02:02):
had a lot of light cheese, So when I was
reading this, I was like, Okay, okay, I think I've
had I've had something. I've had something in this realm before. Sure,
probably yeah, probably. Um. Well, I guess this brings us
to our question, but I think it does. Mmm. What

(02:28):
is it? Well, Rhombootan is a type of fruit that
grows on trees. They're small and roundish and have a
sort of of leathery skin that. Yeah, it's just really
funky looking with these skinny, soft, curvy spines coming off
in all directions. Like do y'all remember cushballs? Oh? Yes,

(02:51):
sort of like that, like vaguely like that, but of fruit. Um, Yeah.
The fruit inside is a translucent whitish in color and
contains a single seed um. And it's sort of like
a like a table grape in flavor and texture like
sweet heart and juicy and soft and a little jelly
like with a little bit of crisp or crunch to it.

(03:11):
Kind of just like just like really nice, like sort
of sort of mild, bright, fruity floral. Yeah, it's like
a it's like of a sea urchin, we're softer and
contained fruit instead of containing sea urchin. Yeah, sort of
sort of like a like a grape with a really
fantastic hair new Yeah. Yeah, it is a fantastic heritage.

(03:36):
It is. It's a little bit right, a little bit
punk rock. I love it. A botanical name Nephilium lapasium. Yeah.
The rampatan tree is a tropical evergreen in the sapendossier
or soap berry family, related yes to lichi and lung
gun um. The trees can grow up to about thirty

(03:57):
meters or ninety feet in height, though they're often kept
to a third or less of that size, and they
have these these like smallish green, yellow to deep green
leaves that grow in a really pretty crown they're they're
grown ornamentally as well as for the fruit um. They
flour in these big clusters of tiny yellow green buds
that have no petals um and if pollinated they can

(04:20):
develop into heavy clusters of fruit. The fruits are yes,
round to oval, about the size of like a ping
pong or a golf ball, like about five to seven
centimeters two plus inches across. But yeah, they also have
this um, this spiky or spiny proturbances coming off of
the skin that that make them look almost twice as big.

(04:43):
The skin will be green when they're immature and will
turn golden or or pinkish ruby when they're ripe, though
the tips of the spines often stay greenish or golden
until they're like very ripe. Yeah, and those long spines
help the fruits regulate moisture in the trees humid habitats.
It just really increases the surface area of the skin,

(05:04):
so it helps them do what they're doing better. Those
spines are sometimes called hairs, and I've read that rhombaton
and lots of other like local words for the plants
are linked to local words for for hair or for
hairy when they're green. If you've never seen them, But
if you live in like the southeast portion of the

(05:27):
United States, they really remind me of those really pesky
gumballs from sweet gum trees. Heck, I hate them, burning
in fiery passion. You're a true nemesis, now I know.
Oh yeah, no, that's it. That's it. Anyway, that the

(05:49):
skin of rhombatons are a little bit thicker than that
of a of a lai chi or long gun um,
like you might want to use a knife instead of
just your fingers to peel them. The fruit is a drupe,
like say, like say a plum or an apricot. Yeah.
So it'll contain a single oblong seed and the flesh
around it will be that translucent like milky white to

(06:10):
kind of pinkish, and you might get sort of like strawberry,
grape tropical sort of flavors from it. Yeah, it's real nice,
just so nice. It's old fresh, or can be processed
to remove the skin and the seed and then be
canned in syrup less often frozen. The fruits are fairly delicate,
like those Moisture regulating spines can let them dry out

(06:32):
real quickly when they're in less than a super humid forest.
So canning has been a popular option, although though improved
storing and shipping technology has increased, like the range of
availability of the fruit fresh and they are eaten, however,
you want to eat fruit, yeah, fresh out of hand,

(06:53):
chopped into fruit salads, or as a topping for desserts,
perhaps especially frozen desserts like ices and ice cream. Or
you can cook them into savory soups or stews, perhaps
especially curries, or use them in marinates to add a
little bit of sweetness and acid. They can be muddled
into fresh drinks or processed into syrups or preserved in
jellies or jams. The seed is also edible once it's roasted.

(07:19):
I think it might be eaten as a snack in
some places that The oils though have traditionally been used
in soap making and candle making. And it is definitely
under investigation for processing forest oils, like as in perhaps
as an additive or substitute for coca butter uses like that. Yeah,
And there is just a bunch of research into how

(07:43):
the peels and the seeds might be used to prevent
waste because a lot of the stuff is canned, and
to make use of the compounds that are naturally produced
by the fruits. Just for example, the antioxidant compounds and
the peels are under investigation for serving fats and oils,
like as a replacement for synthetically produced antioxidants in the

(08:07):
preservation of fats and oils. So that's fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
for sure. Well what about the nutrition by themselves, Rhombaton
are pretty good for you, high in fiber and water content,
lots of nutrients micronutrients, I should say. They can't help
fill you up though, to keep you going at say,

(08:28):
pair with a with some protein and fat. Yeah, yeah, Well,
we do have some numbers for you, Oh we do.
I've read that there are over two hundred varieties of
rhomd baton, but also that some researchers think that might
be a little bit of an inflated statement, because different
cultivars may be given or rather the same cultivars may

(08:49):
be given different names in different cultures. Ah yeah, well.
The average annual production of rhombaton in Southeast Asia between
twenty fifteen to twenty seventeen was one point four million
metric tons, with Indonesia at the top, followed by Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia,
and the Philippines. However, I've also seen it very frequently

(09:12):
reported in recent years that Thailand is the top producer. Yeah,
and I'm wondering. I didn't look too far into it,
but I'm wondering, you know, because it's a crop and
because of various weather and other natural related things, if right,
production is just kind of flip flopped between those two places.

(09:32):
But yeah, I did not see a number specific for
Indonesia's production lately, but I but I read that Thailand
produces about two hundred and eighty thousand tons a year
and that they've typically only exported about five percent of that,
maybe like twelve thousand tons a year, but that as

(09:53):
of early twenty twenty two, exports were already hitting those
numbers and we're expected to about double throughout the year.
I don't know. Outside of Southeast Asia, Thailand was exporting
the most to the United Arab Emirates and one more
number from Thailand. A little bit more perspective into the
fresh versus processed issue and why agricultural researchers have been

(10:18):
looking into fresh rhombaton's shelf life and into reducing waste
products okay um. As of two thousand and four Thailand
was making like eight and a half times more money
on processed rhombaton than on fresh Wow. So yeah, so's
there's just like a huge opportunity for this to be

(10:39):
a growth area. On a cultural note, there is a
rhombaton festival during the harvest season every like July to
August and m so Tani Thailand. They have like a
boat parade and bicycle races and various agricultural competitions and
farm tours miss rambuton pageant and agility demonstrations of monkeys.

(11:07):
Oh yes, because in the area, trained monkeys have sometimes
been used to like scramble up palm trees to collect coconuts. Um. Like,
there is a monkey training school in the province. So yeah,
monkey agility. Wow, yeah, we're pretty into it. Yeah, there

(11:29):
is also a festival around the same time. No monkeys
involved that I'm personally aware of over in Hainan, China. Well,
monkeys can get involved when you link suspect, is what
I'll say. From what I understand, they are difficult to
work with, so m yeah. Yeah. I actually went to

(11:52):
a park in Hong Kong, I think where when you
entered they gave you a hockey stick, keep the monkeys away.
Oh wow, all right, for real, serious business, share, serious business.
One number I found suggested that Indonesians conceived an average

(12:12):
of four kilograms of rhombuton a year, and this was
from a report, a market report that was comparing the
consumption between Southeast Asia and Europe. So another number that
they they had in their report was that demand has
grown in recent years outside of Southeast Asia. So Europe

(12:35):
for instance, has been importing about five hundred to one thousand,
five hundred tons annually of rhombuton and this market is
valued around four million euros. But there are still these
limitations on handling and shelf let kind of going back
to your previous point, but yeah, it's it's a growing

(12:56):
in popularity, yes, around the world, and it has a history,
a history of growing and popularity, it does. And we
are going to get into that as soon as we
get back from a quick break forward from our sponsors

(13:18):
and we're back. Thank you so much, yes, thank you. Okay,
So this is another one where I didn't find as
much information as I would have liked. However, we do
have we do have some things in here, and as always,
if you listeners are privy to more information. Oh, yeah,
more resources please let us know course, yes, okay, but

(13:44):
ramperton most likely originated in Asia, perhaps specifically in the
Malaysian Indonesian area, and it does have quite a long
but not at all clear history of being cultivating. Yes,
in the early days, almost every part of rambuton was
used medicinally in this area for a whole host of things,

(14:07):
the skin, like the whole thing. But yeah, early records
of rambutan are sparse, especially when it comes to the
record of cultivating it as an edible food crop. There
are a few things we know. In Malaysia, for instance,
people selected the seedlings of native rahmbutan for an ambiguous
bootlong amount of time. However, the first records of Malaysian

(14:29):
cultivars don't pop up until the nineteen thirties and more
on that. In a second, Arab traders spread rahmbutan up
into the rest of Asia and over into the Middle
East and Africa, sometimes between the thirteenth and fifteenth century,
or possibly much earlier. Again, the records are lacking. European
colonization further spread rahmbutan soon after. In the sixteen hundreds,

(14:54):
a Spanish botanist, Juan de Quillar sent samples to Mexico
for propagation experimentation, and from there, over the next couple
of centuries, rhombutan was brought to two different parts of
Central and South America, the Caribbean and Hawaii. Places like
Costa Rica, Honduras and parts of South America started cultivating

(15:17):
rhombatan in the early nineteen hundreds, and they were present
in the Philippines and Thailand by nineteen twelve and in
Australia by the nineteen thirties. Again, could be much earlier,
but that's when the records show. By nineteen thirty nine
they were growing in the Philippines a handful of cultivars
on a commercial scale. And then yeah, going back to

(15:38):
that Malaysia kind of late number showing up in the
record of them the cultivars being grown. The Malayan Department
of Agriculture registered thirty two clones of rambutan in nineteen
fifty two. By in nineteen eighty six, the number of
registered clones was sixty two. However, only seven were recommended

(15:59):
for the general public to plant. Yeah, and this was
around when a bunch of kind of kind of parallel
crop experimentation things were going on around the world. Crop
experiments began in China in the early nineteen sixties, and
by nineteen sixty seven Hainan Province had had some success

(16:22):
at growing rhombatan, though commercial production it didn't really take
off until the nineteen nineties, right and people tried to
grow rhombatan seeds from Java to the southern US in
the early nineteen hundreds but didn't really have any success
with it. It was introduced to Latin America and Mexico
and the nineteen fifties and sixties, and then waves of
Asian immigrants to the US brought rhombaton with them around

(16:46):
this time as well, and sold them in Asian markets
and included them in Asian dishes at restaurants. However, they
still remained relatively unknown throughout the country. Still by the fifties,
the rhombaton had more or less gone global while it
was available, whether people knew about it or not or

(17:07):
what to do with it, that was a separate thing.
It was like there, yeah, but people didn't really know
what to make of it if it wasn't something they
grew up with. M With increasing globalization and social media, though,
rhombaton has gained a following in communities where it was
previously unknown. In the US, people seem to really catch

(17:29):
onto it in twenty sixteen, but of course it was
around before then. I also think that probably has to
do with kind of that we've talked about this like Instagram,
morble food. Yes, it's a very very striking and a
lot of outlets did label it as a super fruit,
which you know, it's got issues around the old term,

(17:50):
but it did kind of propel it more into into
the limelight and make it something more and more people
knew about. Yeah, yeah, And I guess you know, it's
it's a matter of like extreme Internet privilege for me
to be able to sit here and say, like, oh, yeah,
if I encounter a produce that I don't know anything
about in a supermarket, like I can buy it and

(18:10):
then figure out how like like what to do with it.
Like in ye olden times before Google, I would have
had to either just work it out for myself or
try to find a reference book, like going to a
physical library perhaps, or calling my like local cultural center
or something like that. But now right it's it's at

(18:31):
your feet. You can pull out your phone and go like,
what the heck is this? How do how do I what?
And okay, and very quickly arrive at that information. Yeah,
that's true because I've definitely done that at a grocery
store before. Where I've been, like especially like during the pandemic,
when I needed another substitute for something. It was out
of whatever I needed. And then I find something, I'm like,

(18:54):
this looks similar? Is it? What is it? Can I
use it? No? Okay, but I still want to get
it right. Yeah, now that is a good point. Um,
I would love to I'm gonna I'm gonna search some out.
I think, Um, they do look cool. They look they
look like a whackadoodle thing you'd find in Dan to me,

(19:15):
to my like growing up experience, they do. Yeah. Yeah, no,
they look I feel like that's uh, even even in
places I mean right in and let me know if
I'm off base here, but like they just look a
little bit weird. Um. And and so even if you're
used to them, you're like, oh man, that's that weird
looking thing I'm used to. Um, but it's still it

(19:36):
doesn't right, Like it's still kind of funky looking it
is and a delightful I love it. Yeah, yes, absolutely
absolutely well. Listeners, if you've got recipes, if you've got tips,
you've got a little if you've got a memory. Yeah, yes.

(19:57):
For some reason, at first I was like, now I
get what you're specific specific memory, not just a memory
at all. Memory. You could share any memories with this
if you would like. But that's what we have to
say about report time. It is, and we do already
have some memory for you from our listener in mailbox,

(20:19):
uh mailbox rather but oh yeah, first we've got a
couple of more more messages from our from our sponsors.
That's what we've got, and we're back. Thank you so much, Yes,
thank you. We're back with no spiky Yeah. My my

(20:51):
dog Dizzy, when I was growing out, she was very
afraid of those coush balls cous coush yeah, yeah, coush Oh.
She was afraid. She would run and hide on it
the bit. She was a coward. But I she once
saw a dress hanging just hanging from the door, and

(21:12):
she ran as if that was it for the day.
But I'm also easily startled, judge, It's true, It's true,
very easily startled. Okay, Hannah wrote, I really enjoyed the
joy of cooking episode and I've realized that these food

(21:32):
adjacent episodes have been some of my favorites. Betty Crocker, Michelin, Stars,
Bad Diets, all good stuff. I've never used the joy
of cooking, and I often get it confused in my
head with the art of French cooking. Although I really
couldn't tell you why. My mom had an antique Betty
Crocker cookbook my whole childhood, so that was the gold
standard to me until I moved out of the house.

(21:53):
I stumbled across a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and
a clearance section, and now that's my go too. I
love it because it has all my favorite foods in it,
and the side notes are incredibly informative. I wrote a
cookbook a few years ago that was a wild right.
I helped run a small summer camp, and one of
our regular retreat groups had been begging us for years

(22:15):
to create a cookbook, and they all submitted recipes that
they wanted included in it. I finally decided it would
be worth put in together, so I spent months collecting
and editing recipes, formatting and designing the cover. The end
result was amateur set past. We ordered seventy five copies,
thinking we would sell out in a year. It's been

(22:35):
six years and we still have sixty copies. Look, but
it got me on a kick of collecting and appreciating
on professional cookbooks. So many churches, diners, camps, clubs, community organizations, etc.
Have made and published their own cookbooks as a way
of fundraising and bringing people together. I love some of

(22:56):
the subtle SaaS you can find, Like on opposite pages
you'll have Betty loose cream cheese assert and someone else's
the best cream cheese. I have a cookbook filled with
apple recipes published by an apple orchard, and the whole
book is cut into the shape of an apple. One
cookbook I found had a recipe that includes an entire cow,

(23:18):
an entire pig, an entire sheep, and a dozen chickens
to cook a dish for several hundred people. Wild stuff.
Oh wow, oh wow, I too love. My mom has
a lot of those, you know, like church cookbooks or
things like that. I too love looking through them because

(23:39):
I don't know, there's something about them that feels so
kind of You're getting a snapshot of some from someone's life,
and I do love you're right there is some stas
where there will be very similar recipes off similar phages
and the title like I love when people will put
like the best cheese dessert or whatever, and it's like,

(24:03):
I mean, obviously, no one gave you this, and you're
just putting it in there, and I love you for it. Yeah,
coming out strong. Right to be confident in your cream
cheese desserts, right, and Betty Lou doesn't even know, right,
I love it. It's so fun and they are interesting
in like terms of yeah, like the shapes of them,

(24:23):
and then especially once you go further back in time
just what people were making and as we talk about
in that Joy of Cooking episode, Yes, it's a really
interesting snapshot into what was going on. Yeah. Yeah, they're
they're so so localized and m and right right down
to the to the printing conventions of the time. It's
really fun. Like what kind of spiral binding you've got

(24:46):
going on? What kind of typography it? Yes? I love them.
I love them, me too, Me too. Sean wrote your
episode on Limburger Cheese was very informative but sparked some
nostalgia between my wife and I. We live roughly an
hour away from Monroe, Wisconsin a sidebar. Monroe, Wisconsin is
the home of Cheese Days every other year or even years.

(25:08):
Imagine over one hundred thousand people descending upon this quaint
little Swiss heritage town for a weekend of beer, PoCA, cows,
and cheese. It boasts the honor of the oldest food
festival in the Midwest. So when my wife and I
had our first date, I decided to plan out a
traveling food filled date. I picked her up at the time,
she was twenty minutes from Monroe, and we headed to

(25:31):
Dragon Popcorn, a local popcorn shop in Freeport, Illinois since closed,
where we tasted what I believe was the best gourmet
popcorn around. We used them as party favors for our wedding.
A stop two was heading to Monroe to bomb Gartners.
Bomb Gartners is the oldest cheese store in Wisconsin and
a tavern too. The charm of bomb Gartners is that

(25:54):
it's an old style pub with beautiful art on the walls,
Swiss decor, and a ceiling covered with money. You can
donate money where they wrap it in a washer and
throw it to try to get it to stick to
the ceiling. Right before Cheese Days, they pull down the
hall and donate it. The tavern is a sandwich shop
and we ordered our sandwiches and beers. When we placed

(26:14):
the order, I asked my wife if she had ever
had limburger. When she responded to the negative, I ordered
a side of the cheese while we waited. I told
her to be prepared and that it smelled like feet.
She wasn't impressed, and even less impressed when she put
the slice on her tongue. She asked me why I
did that. I told her something about how everyone needs

(26:34):
to experience it. The cheese was served with the chocolate mint,
which she ate quickly afterwards, a note I like the cheese.
Following this adventure, we headed to Minus Brewing, where at
the time they included unlimited samples of beers. After the tour,
the beer is not very good, but the quantity makes
up for it. Obviously, we are married now, despite my

(26:55):
inadvertent sabotage of the date with the stinky cheese. On
other note, here let us episode sparked a fun fact
that I use it mixers. I typically ask who was
the largest purchaser of kale in the nineteen nineties. After
many guesses, I dropped the fact that Pizza Hut was
since they used it to garnish their salad bars. Thank
you for all that you do, and if you ever

(27:17):
make it to the Midwest, I'd be happy to buy
you both a cheese sandwich and a beer in Monroe. Ooh, sold,
We're gonna have so many, so many cheese sandwiches come
in our way. It's gonna be amazing. Oh man, I
will take every single one of them. Let's go. Yes, yes, Also,
this sounds like a lovely day, right, stinky cheese. I

(27:40):
love so many of you have sent in these kind
of like meeting stories over food, and I love the
kind of like, yeah, I wanted you to try the
stinky cheese. It was right, even if you dislike it,
it's still an experience, right, You're right, it is an
experience and it's something you remember. I glad that you

(28:01):
ended up together. Or maybe because of the cheese. You know,
that might sell me. I'd be like, okay, all right, yeah,
you know what, but yeah, this is a lovely story.
I very very excited to try Linburger Um cheese days.

(28:23):
Cheese day. I know, Oh my gosh, that sounds right
up our alley. You know, and dragon popcorn bummer clothe right.
Oh yeah, yeah, well, poor poor one out for the
for the lost popcorn Anny. Yes I will. It's malready

(28:45):
grown today after all. Um. Well, thank you to both
of these listeners for writing in. If you would like
to write to us you again. Our email is hello
at saborpop dot com. We are also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
saver pod and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts to my

(29:07):
Heart Radio. You can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope that lots more
good things are coming your way