Tropical Fruit Hunting in Kuala Lumpur

Fruit paradise, right next to the big city vibes

Colorful fruits and veggies wherever you look, Chow Kit Market in Kuala Lumpur is a paradise for fruit lovers like myself - but you have to make your way along the meat and fish stalls first. This can become quite a challenge with the very intense smells of dead animals, raw meat and any animal parts that don’t make their way over the vendors‘ counter. Your bravery will be rewarded though, at the other end of the market there are stalls loaded with fresh and colorful fruits, waiting to be tasted. As a short advice, you might want to circle around the market and walk directly into the fruit and veggie corner - I certainly couldn't manage to make my way straight through the meat and fish area.

Can bananas actually taste like cake?

The kind banana vendor greeted me with the words „Want to eat my bananas?“ and received a big „YES, please!“ as my response. I have not tried all their varieties yet, but the baby bananas are so far my favorite. They are very tiny, have about the length of a finger and hide a deep yellow flesh below the skin. For me, they strangely taste a lot like tangerine butter cake, but I do have a wild imagination when it comes to my taste buds. They are definitely very sweet and can easily compete with a any piece of sugary cake.

How cempedak threw me right back into my childhood

And of course, as curious adventuress, I also love to try some new tropical treasures whenever I get the chance. This time we bought a cempedak, a smaller relative of the huge jackfruit which sometimes grows up to a length of 1 meter. We had not yet tried a good jackfruit nor a cempedak before, but the smell from the outside already got us super excited, since it was so similar to durian. The taste was totally different though, much like those pink, very sweet gums that we used to make huge bubbles with in our childhood. Well, I never liked that taste very much in my earlier years and seems like that has not changed much. So I have to admit, cempedak has not stolen my foodie heart yet. But I was told that the related jackfruit should be quite different in taste and that it definitely deserves a try.

Rambutan - Love at first bite

What really became my new favorite fruit on earth - which tends to change with every country I travel to - is the rambutan. It has its origin in Malaysia and that is where the name comes from, since ‚Rambut‘ is Malay and translates to hair, due to its weird hairy look. Behind its arguable style, the rambutan reveals a white, soft flesh, similar to the lychee fruit. The taste is very sweet and still refreshing due to its very high water content. Apart from the awesome taste, I learned about the many vitamins and minerals that it contains which aid in weight loss, improve your skin and hair, optimize digestion, support your bones, boost your energy metabolism and help in healing different health conditions. How can you not love this wonderful fruit, right?

Local markets - Between culture, plastics and shipping containers

I love to buy my groceries on local markets, this is definitely the best place to dive into the distinctive culture of a country and test your few phrases of Malay on the locals, which are often quite amused by my efforts and welcome it with a few extra lemons in my grocery bags.

Apart from that, the fruits and veggies are mostly not pre-packaged into a plastic wrap like it is the case in many supermarkets. I really think a zucchini is quite well protected and does not need an extra layer of toxic material to arrive safely in my kitchen. Therefore I always bring along my reusable cloth bags, so that no plastic bag is wasted for my fruits and veggies - so simple and yet so effective.

Although I expected this local fruit market to sell predominantly Malay produce, since this country offers some great fruit varieties, so many fruits at Chow Kit are imported from Thailand or other nearby countries. We really had to search for vendors that sell local fruits from Malaysia and they were pretty hard to find. But once we picked our favorite stalls and bought there regularly, the vendors were so kind to always give us the best produce and even put a little extra fruit into our bag - that made us feel so welcomed there!

I always encourage you to dive into local markets, no matter if your are traveling or back at home. Not only do you tend to get better produce, you also learn a lot about the fruits, since the vendors often love to share their knowledge about their beloved fruits and veggies. Did that ever happen to you at a regular supermarket? At the same time you support the local people and might even make some great connections that can brighten up your day!

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Have a wonderful day and a fruitful journey ahead!

Yours, Anais

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( This post is taking part in Steemit 'Fruits and Veggies Monday Competition' from @lenasveganliving .)

Tropical Fruit Hunting in Kuala Lumpur - Chow Kit Market