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Bananas
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There are at least tens or even hundreds of kinds of
them, ranging from a small, pinky-sized, gold-colored ones to a foot
or foot-and-a-half, dark green ones. All of them are edible, although
some are more commonly eaten by animals than by humans. Ripe bananas
usually have yellowish or orangish color, and they taste sweet.
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Coconut
- Considered the most useful of all plants - everything
from its roots to its leaves have uses in Bali, from daily meal to
cleaning tools to religious ceremonies - young coconuts are delicious
fruit. The juice is sweet and aromatic, and the meat, which can vary
from a jell-like consistency to a harder one, depending on its age,
can be dug out of the shell with a narrow spoon. Try cutting the
green husk of the coconut itself into a primitive spoon shape and see
if you can use it to gouge out the meat out of the shell...
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Durian
- Usually in season from April to July, durian is the
definition of "either you love it or you hate it." It's approximately
the size of a volley ball, with spikes around it. Considering that
durian trees are taller than coconut trees, and the best way of
harvesting them is by waiting for them to fall off their trees, an
evening stroll in a durian garden when they are in season is certainly
dangerous to the shape and smoothness of your head.
Durian has an extremely strong aroma (or extremely pungent odor) -
it's a matter of perspective. When they are in season, you can smell
a durian vendor from blocks away. Each fruit has a number of rooms in
which a number of fist-sized chunks of meat wrapping thumb-sized seeds
can be found. The meat is yellow to golden in color, and they taste,
well, like durian (forgive me, for I have yet to taste any other fruit
that can come even close to the taste of durian). My personal
favorite is the room that has only one chunk - these chunks usually
have the most meat and taste the best.
Also, boiled durian seeds (called beton in Java) are an
interesting delicacy with which you may wish to enrich your culinary
vocabulary.
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Grapefruit
- Also known as Bali's orange. It is
sweet-smelling, and its flesh is pink. You can find them fresh
anywhere in Bali any time of the year.
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Jackfruit or nangka.
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Another one of my personal favorites. Nangka's size can vary from as
small as an adult's head to as large as the size of 20-inch
television. They also grow in tall trees that look like mango trees.
Inside a nangka, there are a number of little, half fist-sized, bright
yellow chunks. The meat of these chunks surround a thumb-sized seed.
These chunks are literally glued together inside the big fruit, and
the sap that glues them is really sticky, and it can stain your
clothes.
Nangka has a very strong sweet aroma (and no, nobody argues about
this). The meat is very tasty, and is often used to flavor or to add
aroma to various kinds of delicacies and beverages. The seeds can
also be boiled for an afternoon snack.
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Mango
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There are also several kinds of mangoes in Bali. The
fruit is sweet, juicy, and very aromatic. Miss Manners would
recommend peeling the skin off, and eating the fruit with a knife and
fork, but do that at the Four Seasons. If you are out in the field,
by a mango tree, a child at heart, simply peel off the skin, and eat
it directly.
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Oranges
- Most oranges in Bali are more like what you call tangerines in
the United States. They have very thin skin, small, and very sweet
and tasty.
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Papaya
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You can find it everywhere and any time. This fruit has
a yellow green skin, and orange to red meat, with dark brown to black
seeds inside. Most Balinese eat papaya as dessert regularly.
A large quantity of papaya may function as laxative.
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Passion fruit
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Slightly larger than a golf ball, this fruit is juicy and jelly-like, with a sweet-sour taste. It has seeds inside that you can safely eat.
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Rambutan
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Literally means that which is covered with hair. Rambutan is a small red fruit covered with soft hairy spines. Inside the fruit you can find a white meat with a brown seed inside the meat. The meat is incredibly
tasty. Very refreshing in the summer.
If you believe, as I do, even in the slightest bit, that a visit to a
place or a culture is incomplete unless you partake in a gastronomical
tour as well, the descriptions of the fruit above should leave you
salivating. Well, when you are in Bali, go to a 
