The Rambutan

I've decided to name this blog "Rambutan Tree" because it holds alot of happy memories for me. One of my earliest recollections as a child was climbing up the low hanging branches of the trees in my grand-aunt's house and perching on its branches while I helped myself to the succulent, sweet fruit. Every now and then, I would flick off the little black ants which scampered up and down the branches and dropped a few fruits down to my brother who was afraid of heights :-)

Rambutan or nephelium lappaceum is a tropical tree, native to South East Asia. There are a number of varieties (including the yellow fruited kind) and they grow to a height of 10-20 m. The best part, of course, is the round or oval fruit. You can pop off the reddish skin covered with soft spines by squeezing it in between your hands (you may get a squirt or two of juice in your eye). Your reward is the sweet, succulent flesh which is hard to resist(note though that the seed is toxic). Needless to say, it's my favourite fruit.

Like the rambutan, I was born in SE Asia, in Kuching, Sarawak - the year of my birth saw a bumper crop of durians, so much so that they were thrown out and rotted on the streets. My mother attributes my aversion to this other tropical fruit to the stench that hung over the town like a stale blanket. To this day, the great divide in my family has been those who love and hate the durian fruit.