it's mango season in Cambodia, which means I've been eating about 5 mangoes a day. (Somebody's gotta eat 'em before they spoil...) In honor of this marvelous bounty of fruit, I've decided to break down the fruits I've been eating over here, their season, and their Khmer names.
July - October: oranges (kroach p'sat), sweet grapefruits (kroach t'long), custard apples (tiep), "mien," dragonfruit (sroka niek), and rambutan (saomao).
December - March: milkfruit (plai dteuk ta goa), watermelon (owlook), and papaya (lahoang).
March/April: asian plums (mat yoang) and mangoes (swai).
May: durian (toorien).
Here are a few more fruits that are available year round, or I just don't eat them enough to know when they're in season: bananas (chayk), coconuts (doang), jackfruit (k'noal), grapes (??), "lamot," tamarind (ampuhl - personally I think these are disgusting), and "kuy."
the beautiful ladies of Peace Corps
(L to R: Katie, Deidre, Tara, Whitney, and Katie)
Bob, me, Matt, and Anthony
me, Deidre, and Katie in a tuktuk
(apparently i look creepy in this picture)
Matt, Michael, and me on swear-in day
training: a break during language class
(Adrian, me, Katie, Matt)
I am a giant.
a goofy giant
A Cambodian classroom
they're all pretty much the same...
she saved her husband with her hair
it's true...
3 comments:
Hey Daniel! I'm glad I came upon your blog in time to see that May is Durian season... aside from mangoes, durian is my favorite asian fruit. If you've already gotten over it's smell and actually tried it, let me know what you think of it! Whenever I'm around markets that sell it or make smoothies out of them, I buy it! Yep, call me obsessed... I'm glad to see you're doing great things for our world! Keep up the great job :)
Fresh tamarind is actually very good mixed with fish sauce and served with grilled fish. Yum!
Hello from a PCV in Mongolia. Seeing you list all these fruits makes me so jealous... and sometimes question, "why am I not in Cambodia instead?" where the fruits are bountiful and the vegetables, oh my.. vegetables. In case you haven't guess, there are no tropical fruits to be had here. When I saw rambutans in UB for the first time I almost cried, I paid over 1 dollar for it, gasp!
Btw, the English word for 'mien' is longans, which is probably my favorite fruit ever. Please keep updating with pictures of food, fruits, and vegetables from Cambodia so I can salivate over it.
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