SNAKE FRUIT (Salacca zalacca.)

I ate my first snake fruit when I went on a school trip to Kelantan with our students a few years ago. From that time on I would always buy the fruit whenever I saw it being sold. Usually they are the pickled ones instead of the fresh ones like above. So when I saw the Salak fruit or Snake fruit sold at the Farmer's Market last Saturday, I made sure I bought some. Oh and the reason why it is called Snake fruit is rather obvious. If you take a closer look at it, the skin of the fruit resembles that of a snake.

Here is some information about this fruit.

Salak, also known as snake fruit due to the brown scaled skin. The skin of the Salacca fruit has a unique texture not unlike that of a snake's skin, rough to the touch in one direction but smooth in the other.The tree has been cultivated in South East Asia for its rare and delicious fruit which is commonly referred to as Salak or Snakefruit due to its reddish-brown and scaly skin.They are about the size and shape of a ripe fig. Just like manggis, the fruit consists of lobes, with large seed inside each lobes. It has a hint of sweet and sourish taste and the texture is firm and crunchy, just like apple and pear. If you are not lucky enough, you might get salak that tasted “kelat” (bitter aftertaste).