That tour of Thai Town

[rachelmanija]

The mangosteen is my holy grail of untasted tropical fruit. They don't grow in the US. When I've traveled, I've missed the season. I have been looking for mangosteens for something like 20 years, with no luck.

Today, in honor of Anthony Bourdain, I had the morning glory stems and ground pork with olives at Ruen Pair, then walked across the way to my favorite Thai sweet shop, Bhan Kanom Thai. It was their 20th anniversary, and I got a free tote bag. And there, for the first time in my life, I found mangosteens.

Thanks, Tony.

Comments

spork of vicarious fooding

[yhlee]

I've always wanted to try a mangosteen--go you! Will you tell us about the taste?

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[rachelmanija]

Sort of like a tart peach. The texture is somewhere between a lychee and a custard apple.

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[yhlee]

Mmmmmmm.

Well, I will have to look for it at some later juncture in my life. =) Thank you for the description, Rachel!

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[thomasyan]

Do you have an H Mart near you? There's one we go to, and we've seen mangosteen the past few years.

Usually, the leaves (?) On the fruit have started to turn brown or are brown. I forget if we've ever gotten them with green leaves, but we saw pictures a friend took, and she had scored a haul with green leaves.

I think the price is like $12 per pound, maybe as low as $9 when on sale. We fun indulge too often, but in memory of Bourdain seems very appropriate.

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[yhlee]

I'm in Baton Rouge, so no, but I'm not in a hurry.

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[sholio]

I was just going to ask what they tasted like!

I've had mangosteen flavored drinks, but I'm not sure how that compares to actual mangosteen, and it was long enough ago now that I can't even remember what it tasted like in the first place ...

Anyway, I'm glad you finally got to try it! :)

Re: spork of vicarious fooding

[genarti]

I was going to ask too -- I've heard that they're delicious, but never had the opportunity to try one for myself. That sounds great!

Also, Anthony Bourdain was only somewhat on my radar, which I had been vaguely meaning to fix for ages and am now rather less vaguely intending to fix as soon as reasonably possible. But I really love the idea of honoring him by treating oneself to food discoveries.