Jackfruit a specialty of Quang Nam province

Tien Chau commune, Tien Phuoc district is the midland and mountainous area of the central province of Quang Nam. Not only does the land own beautiful landscapes of the mountains, streams, rice fields and old houses but it is also the home of a very familiar kind of plant in Vietnam. Thanks to advantages of the terrain, this plant has grown here for hundreds of years creating distinctive and unique characteristics for the land and the people.

For long time, jackfruit has been a theme of songs, poems and folk songs for children. As a jackfruit tree is big and tall, it often is the place to gather and play of children. Very young jackfruit is also their favorite to eat. Jackfruit is a special delicacy of Vietnam. Together with bamboo trees, rice fields, jackfruit trees are among the most typical image of Vietnam rural areas. Tien Phuoc district in Quang Nam province has been long known as the home of many kinds of jackfruit. Local people here even cook jackfruit as the main dishes in everyday meals. They are actually cooked in so many different ways.

Jackfruit has been grown all over Tien Chau commune of Tien Phuoc district for hundreds of years. No one knows exactly when jackfruit tree appears. But by now, every household in the commune has 3 to 4 jackfruit trees in their gardens. There are two main kinds of jackfruit: dried jackfruit and wet jackfruit. Dried jackfruit is subdivided into two types including honey jackfruit and saffon jackfruit. Local people cook jackfruit for their daily meal. So they use not only ripe ones but also young jackfruit and nearly ripe jackfruit. Apart from using in cuisine, jackfruit wood is also used to build houses and home appliances.

In Tien Phuoc district, the fruit market normally opens in 6a.m. The market offers a wide variety of fruits and jackfruit accounts for a great number of them. Tien Phuoc is in the midland area, so jackfruit is very easy to grow here. Local people often buy young jackfruit because they ca cooked in different ways for their daily meals. While in other regions across the country, people only enjoy the ripe one.

 Jackfruit in Tien Chau commune can be cooked in many different ways. We use unripe, half-ripe and even ripe ones. We can steam half-ripe jackfruit. For the unripe one, we can cook soup with snails or caramelized-jackfruit with flying fish, or jackfruit salad. Young jackfruit can be sliced into smaller pieces. The sliced pieces of jackfruit should be put into the water to prevent blackening and keep the color of white. The first dish cooked from jackfruit is pickled jackfruit. In this dish, the natural fiber of jackfruit will be mixed with salt and then put into a pot.

The second dish is jackfruit salad. Jackfruit salad is the combination of young jackfruit, peanut and other spices. This dish can be served as the aperitif. The spices of this dish include sugar, spice and grinded peanut. Mix together and add vegetables and oil. Next dish is steamed jackfruit. This dish is combination of jackfruit seed and flesh. The first step is to boil its seeds. Take off the skin of seeds, and then grind it into flour. Grinded jackfruit seed will be mixed with meat, sugar, spices and turmeric powder. The jackfruit flesh is also mixed with salt. Add the mixed filling to the jackfruit flesh, then squeeze it and put it into the basket. The flesh shoud be ready for steaming. It takes about 30 minutes to steam the jackfruit. The jackfruit salad can enjoy with grilled rice paper. The combination of jackfruit salad, grilled rice paper and fish sauce is really delicious. Jackfruit appears in the daily meals of local residents. They cook a variety of jackfruit, from unripe jackfruit, half-ripe jackfruit to ripe ones. The jackfruit trees produce their fruit every year and every season.

Source: VTV4 – VTV.vn