We Tried Bangkok's Fruit Dishes Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen

[fruit squashing and chopping]

[motor bike roars]

Welcome to a bright sunny day, an hour outside of Bangkok.

I've been told that this is the place

to check out some fruit.

That's where we're going.

Welcome to Jay Nok Kraton Song Krueng,

which is known for the santol fruit,

cut up and dressed in an amazing way.

In the couple of days that we've been here,

we haven't seen fruit stands of this size, making dressed,

elaborate fruit dishes of this quality,

but there is fruit everywhere.

This, I think, is what we're here for, santol,

also known as a cotton fruit.

I'm excited because I have no idea what to expect.

The outside of this fruit is a little bit like a pet.

It's a little bit furry.

It's orange, striped.

It's quite large, but I have no idea what's inside of it.

Oh, oh!

Is this santol?

[Queen speaking foreign language]

The middle is like mangosteen.

It's like slurpy with a bit slimy in the middle.

The outside, apricot texture,

looks a little bit like a peach,

tastes a little bit like a soured peach.

The center, there's a pit in the middle that you spit out,

but the outside you slurp, [motor bike roars]

try to scrape it as much of it off with your teeth.

[Lucas speaking foreign language]

I see honeydew, dragon fruit.

Oh, by the way, this is the dedication

to fruit we have as Asian chefs,

but that's not what we're here for.

What we're here for is santol.

Here in the back, in the production kitchen,

she's peeling through it.

The skin seems quite pliable,

but it's got a good amount of fiber.

First, soaking it in water,

and the big boy comes out, wah, wah, okay, okay, okay.

She's not chopping all the ways through.

It looks like what she's going for is a spiral

at a bit of an angle, through the top, through the bottom.

She presses it open. [Lucas gasps]

Wah, beautiful.

Can I taste?

[chef speaking foreign language]

Oh, it needs to be.

Okay, yes. [Lucas laughs]

This is where the bulk of it's done.

It looks like it's soaked in a little bit of a brine,

but everyone all day is doing this.

Chef told us that she prepped 1,000 portions

of this for today alone.

Here she is doing the takeout.

When she presses it into the takeout container,

she'll get a nice floss vein swirl.

That way when the dressing and the seasoning

and the sauce goes over the top,

you can pick it out individually for pieces.

Syrup, okay.

This is cane sugar.

The chef says, has been cooked for eight hours

and then infused with chilies,

just to balance out that sweetness,

so it's not just one dimension.

And then over the top,

peanuts, coconut, little baby shrimp.

Wah!

No way.

Get out of here.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Wah, assumptions are being challenged.

Fruit usually is sweet.

You have that classic pairing of peanuts and coconut.

Both of those a little bit nutty.

You're expecting some earthy, toasted brightness.

I'm expecting a little bit of a punch from the chili

for that spice, and then for a thick syrup,

maybe something that lasts a little bit longer,

maybe something right on the edge of cloying.

Whoa, the fruit itself is tart.

But the first feeling is a sort of buttery,

supple richness.

There's obviously a little bit like that in a green apple,

a little bit of those tannins at the back of your mouth.

There's a bit of guava.

There's a little bit of sour sauce,

and the syrup is really sweet,

but it's really balanced out

with that chili and that saltiness.

It's slippery, it's smooth.

But it's not quite silky.

There's a little bit of firmness,

because it gives way like a peach.

So toasted coconut and peanuts, smell that nuttiness.

You smell that fragrance.

There is a whiff of that dried shrimp, and it's very sweet.

This is definitely a summer dish.

Imagine this at a picnic.

It's carved out so that you can take a piece on your own.

Eat it over conversation.

I mean, look out here,

all these people are queuing up,

all these people are here first thing in the morning.

This is one of the most popular fruit stalls

here outside of Bangkok.

I also see something over here.

What is this one for?

[chef speaking foreign language]

For green mango?

[chef speaking foreign language]

[Lucas laughs] This is at the front of the stall.

Okay, cool.

Here's some beautifully cut green mango

with that embellishment, with that specialty knife.

Fruit carving is a big part of the culture.

This looks like chopped shallots,

more little baby dried shrimp, chilies, that same syrup,

and I smell fish sauce.

And as it sits here in the front,

all those flavors come together.

And one bowl molasses seed, red brown sugar.

It looks like tamarin with a little bit of chili,

and a crystal white sugar, and maybe some palm sugar also.

When you order green mango,

this is what you get over the top.

Look at this beautiful gloss.

And a little bit of a topping over here, too, dried shrimp.

Thank you.

This is the QUEEN OF FRUIT, herself.

[Lucas laughs]

So green mango, unlike yellow, ripe mango, is less ripe,

but also you're eating it for a different flavor,

so there's a little bit of savoriness,

a significantly less sweet,

and you want some sourness and tartness in it.

Hmm, this is really good.

This is really good.

No, it's like every flavor together.

Every single part of your palette is hit.

Here's that bright orange shrimp.

This is usually a salt water shrimp.

These are shrimpy.

They're dried, so a little bit crispy,

a little bit chewy in the middle.

It's giving us salinity to balance out

all the aggressive sugar.

The mango itself is nice and tart,

almost like a chip for when you dip it.

It's almost like three stages, sweet and sour first,

and then the savoriness from the shrimp, the fish sauce,

and then finally chili.

Just like lasting chili heat at the back of your palate.

I've had versions of this before with pork

and different other contexts, but within fruit,

this is really quite special.

Is green mango a different type of mango?

[Chef] Yeah. Oh, I see.

[Chef] It's not like mango.

So green mango is a totally different species of mango.

They're eaten primarily

for their texture and their sourness.

When they're ripe, they're not as good,

so don't assume that green mangoes are just raw versions

of the regular mangoes that we get,

that we eat sweet.

Very much.

[Lucas speaking foreign language]

Let me tell you what's typical.

What's typical is a fruit stand in Southeast Asia.

What's typical is a cornucopia of delicious sweet fruits

that you can get, the variety that you can get,

in a place like Bangkok.

What's not typical is the popularity of this place.

All day, you're just gonna see people drive up,

pop out to get their fruit,

hop back in their car onto their way.

There are a couple of things

that make this dish uniquely Thai.

One, the availability of this fruit.

If I could get this on a regular basis,

I'd be messing with the dish all the time.

Second, the technique,

cutting it so that you can smush it down,

spiral it, share it.

Third, the seasoning, obvious sweetness, fruit,

sweet-on-sweet, but also the chilies,

that echo, that back spice,

the savoriness from the fish sauce, from the shrimp.

It all comes together into something that is a full palate,

almost full body experience.

For us tourists, for people who aren't here in Bangkok,

I think one of the most amazing thing

is to explore the fruit culture,

because of the variety of textures,

the variety of sweets and flavors.

Part of it is standing outside

in the sweltering heat like this,

waiting for your fruit

to be cut up and getting it dressed

so beautifully, so perfectly.

It's not something I've ever had before,

and it's something I'm looking forward to having again,

the next time I'm back.

[motor bikes roars]

Behind you, by the way,

Durian stuffed with stinking rice,

with the QUEEN, herself,

Jay Nok Kraton Song Krueng.

[crowd murmuring]

[motor bike roars]