Sunday, January 01, 2006

Ambla

First post of 2006 ~ Something to do with FOOD... Cos, as I always mentioned.. We live to eat, NOT eat to live.

I love this sourish crunchy fruit. This fruit has several different names.. In Malay it is known as buah kedondong. We called it as Ambla in Penang. It is called differently in Sarawak. I remembered calling it something like mankulong in my dialect. Scientific name Ambarella? (Sounds like Umbrella to me :P) I have no idea what is the chinese name for this fruit. The home-made pickled version is still the best.

The skin and flesh will turn from dark green colour to golden yellow colour when ripe. When the fruit is half ripe, it is firm in texture and the flesh is sour, acidic, crispy and juicy. When the fruit is ripe, the flesh will subsequently become soft and sweet. The bigger fruit has spiky seed (or core??).. So watch out !! Used to eat this fruit very frequent in Sarawak. But so far, I have never come across the bigger fruit in Penang. What I see here is the smaller fruits without the hard spiky core. Might be it's available in other states.

And it can be made into fruit juice as well... This is one of the popular cold refreshing drink ~ the blended ambla mixed with assam or sui boey.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

ambla juice very nice and refreshing..
i like to drink it with assam... :D

it is a seasoning fruit??

Sharl612 said...

Hey, I know this ;-). Used to have the tree at the backyard back in hometown. (now chopped off liao)

You can eat the half ripe one with belacan sauce or sugar+soy sauce, or alternatively, preserve them to make snack.

The fun part about this is eating the fruit as "clean" as you can until the spike are clearly shown.

Alicia said...

:D wad happened to ur blog sia.. i saw all kosong on the right side..

Chen said...

Dino,
Ah.. I don't think there's season for this fruit leh..
Cos I see it all year round

Sharl,
Belacan sauce? I never try eating with this before..
Eating together with sugar + soy sauce or sugar + salt are my old time favourites in Sarawak.
Over here, they serve it together with the sui boey or assam powder.

Alicia,
Err.. Might be becos I was playing with the templates just now..
Now everything is back to normal :)

Cynthia said...

oh.. this drink ah! my fav in msia.. i order everytime when i dine out.. thank my mum n aunt who introduce me 2 years ago. =)

Chen said...

cynthia,
now I feel like drinking pulak..

Jellyfish said...

i wan (eventhough i duno whats that :P)

Jellyfish said...

but hor... if sour...
den ar... think twice liao
kekekeke...

Chen said...

jellyfish,
u never eat or drink this before ah?
aiyoh...
very nice leh :D

Jellyfish said...

hmmmmm.............
duno leh
maybe will test 1 sudu when i come pg next time :P

Chen said...

jellyfish,
no need to wait till coming to penang lah..
this drink is surely available in KL :D

day-dreamer said...

Uncle Jellyfish, try ordering saa lei (Cantonese) when you dine out in KL. If cannot get, KL memang teruk then...

I love ambla juice too. Very very refreshing. But then, my mom said she read from somewhere and also heard from others that if you add suin boei to ambla juice, it creates certain chemical reaction and is not so good to human's health. So, best have it without the suin boei, although it doesn't taste as good then. Anyway, with suin boei or not, it's fine with me.

By the way, I think I know one of Jellyfish's weakness already. He cannot stand sourness. Is that correct? Muahahaha!

Pandabonium said...

Nice post to make me thirsty. This fruit is native to Pacific islands and is so good it has been introduced in many areas of the world with tropical climates. It is related to the mango.

Everyone has their own name for it. In Fiji it is called "Fiji apple" and in Tahiti "Otaheite apple".

Yummy.

Chen said...

day dreamer,
kekkee... u call him unker jellyfish pulak..
sure he cannot sleep tonight after hearing this :)

Never heard of that before :) Anyway, we cannot eat sui boei in large as well amount cos of the preservatives etc etc etc...

pandabonium,
huh? Thanks for sharing.
I'm not aware of that :)

Jellyfish said...

ceh...
bully me again :P
nvm lor. go ahead
kekekeek....

day-dreamer said...

You say one har... don't regret wor!

UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!
UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!
UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!
UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!
UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!
UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!! UNKER Jellyfish!!

c a r c a r said...

jelly,
i think d-dreamer have problem with u? *fall in love to u?*

*cabut*

chen,
how coincidence u posted this blog? i just mentioned to my sgp fren that they don't have the 'blended assam mixed with ambla' here! haha..i love this drink very much! thanks for sharing!

Chen said...

carcar,
walao... Dunno daydreamer will throw what things at u after she read your comment :)

so this drink is not available in Singapore? :)
Might be I can set up a stall over there in Singapore and earn some Sing dollar :D

day-dreamer said...

*hand holding parang, looking around for someone named carcar*

YOU ARE MAD!!! Jellyfish is way too old for me. I repeat... WAY TOO OLD!

He say we - means YOU and ME - can bully him (read: call him UNKER)... so, since he like people to call him unker, we should all oblige... :D

You like him is it? Say lah, I can matchmake the both of you, for a minimum charge, if you like. :P

Chen said...

day dreamer,
Wah.. I dunno u r so garang ....
take out parang summore :O
Cannot play play with u liao ..... :D
better hide :)

c a r c a r said...

d-dreamer,

what a 'same excuse' both of u given huh? jelly told me you are WAY TO YOUNG for him! wahaha!

*i am speechless*

Don't take out parang lah, peace peace ok...

Later murder case happen in chen's blog, not so nice ya!

*peace peace*

day-dreamer said...

*parang still in hand*

Chen, hehehe... in this world hor, don't garang a bit leh... will be very easily bullied by other people (read: carcar). So, for self-defense purposes, had to do so lor...

carcar, really? Or you sendiri reka punya? Exactly. Jellyfish is so old, cannot make boyfriend mah make UNKER lo... understand? Despite being a peace-lover, I cannot keep quiet if I feel threatened. So... be careful ya... :P

*still holding the parang* :P :P :P :P

Chen said...

carcar and day dreamer,
*peace peace*
please shake hand and forget the past :D

day-dreamer said...

*extends hand to carcar*

Chen said...

day dreamer,
good girl, I sayang u :)
now waiting for carcar to shake hand :D