The fruits of my labor.. Sumatra

I felt like a moron while hanging out with my friends in Kota agung after I had told them that I was a Professional cook in America, but I had no idea where things like cashews, chocolate, and coffee came from! I took my 5 week trip across one of the largest islands in the world as an opportunity to learn more about tropical fruits, here are some of my findings...

Rambutan is a lychee-like fruit covered in reddish hairs with an edible white core...

A star fruit which is a common fruit found all over Southeast Asia...

The little pod at the top of this bland fruit contains a single cashew..

I'm told that the English word for 'Nanka' is Jackfruit but I'm not sure. It comes in huge fruits and these little yellow pods are very sweet and mango-like.

Chocolate trees! Here are 2 types of Chocolate trees (red and yellow?), the seeds are coated with a thick white skin that tastes sweet when sucked on.

The seeds in these green pods will later be dried, roasted, and ground to become delicious cups of coffee...

Coconuts are possibly my favorite things to stop and devour on a hot day, after drinking the water the pulp can be scraped from the inside...

These 'Durian' may be the most famous fruit in Indonesia. They are expensive and known for their strong odor. The pulps have a very unique flavor that some might find unpleasant and the locals always warn that eating durian and drinking beer will cause the stomach to explode and death! (btw these are spikey and heavy, you wouldn't want to be under a durian tree when one of these fell!)

Although not a fruit, I thought these rubber trees would belong in this post. Slits are cut into the trees and the raw rubber is drained to make low quality tires and such.

'Gold Bananas' are very tiny and unique to the northern part of west Sumatra and once you have one of these, you will understand what a banana is meant to be. The inside is almost orange and has a 'twang' that makes the commercial Chiquita bananas seem like Styrofoam...

Papayas are everywhere in Sumatra.

'Red Pineapples' in the mountains of north Sumatra are unbelievably sweet and delicious and a whole pineapple costs 10 cents!