If you ask me, my favourite fruits are tropical. If they are not tropical, I find them quite bland. Tropical fruits tend to be sweeter and are equivalent to dessert. Mention durian, chempedak, rambutan or mango and my eyes light up. They also happen to be fruits I’ve loved since I was a toddler.
Lately the rambutans I’ve been having have not been as sweet or juicy as what I recall from childhood. They use to squirt with sweet juice. These days they seem dryer. So far the best ones I’ve had have been the more expensive ones from Cold Storage, with the stems removed and no yellow ones in the bunch – all very red and ripe. But 18 juicy fruits for S$3.90 is not too bad.
The ones from the markets usually have some yellow in them but they are much cheaper. You could probably get double for the same price, but the quality may not be as good. But it all depends. I am still sure if I search long enough I can find some cheap and even better quality rambutans at a market somewhere.
Be careful of ants. They can be found around sweet rambutans. Once we bought home rambutans and you could see tiny black ants crawling around attracted to the sugary sweetness. I don’t blame them.
One of my favourite reds – rambutan red.
The beautifully wrapped ones from Cold Storage. Got these at the West Coast Plaza branch.
don’t you think the flesh sticking onto the woody seed, eating the skin of the woody seed is quite a turn off?
my sis feels that way too…but I am ok with it 😉 Actually I think with the really ripe ones that’s not supposed to happen. She also doesn’t like them sticking in her teeth.
I’ve only just discovered rambutans but I agree they are lovely!
I have a friend who migrated and the first thing she searches for on her return to Singapore is rambutan 🙂
That’s lovely!
Seeing the other comment about the seed sticking to the fruit, I wasn’t sure if that was just me making a peeling error or something but glad to read it isn’t 🙂
Ya it does happen….but I recall it happens less with better quality ones.
I love rambutans too but I haven’t had one for a very long time 🙁 My paternal grandmother used to stay in this house with a rambutan tree in its compound. So we used to get lots of rambutans all the time – could literally pull down a bunch and eat! But I never dared to open the hairy fruit myself :p
I love peeling open the fruit myself and the juice squirts out..kinda messy. When my sis was little my mum used to peel them all the stick them into the fridge. She liked it that way.