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Northern Thai Fruits
Thailand is tropical country and can produce
many tropical fruits whole year round. Each region
has its own unique fruits and Nothern Thailand's tropical
rainforest as well produces lots of cool climate fruits
some of which have been used for making wines e.g strawberries.
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 Banana or "Kluai"
Bananas are available all year round. The most common varieties grown in Thailand are:
Kluai Hom - Fragrant Banana, ripe fragrant bananas are a popular all-day snack. It goes well with breakfast cereals and is ideal for making banana fritters, cakes and ice-cream.
Kluai Khai - The Egg Banana has a thinner golden-yellow skin when ripe. It is eaten fresh or cooked in light syrup. It is also popular as dried banana, candy, or cake. Kluai Nam Wa - Sticky and sweet when ripe, Kluai Nam Wa is valued for its high nutritional value. It is often used in a dessert known as Kluai Buat Chee in which slices of banana are cooked in coconut milk. It is also a key ingredient of steamed desserts made with glutinous rice, or rice flour, such as in Khao Tom Mut or Khanom Kluai.
Kluai Hak Mook- A cooking banana that is delicious when roasted or grilled.
Banana blossoms known as "Hua Plee" are used fresh as a garnish for the famous Pad Thai noodle dish, used in Thai salads or yam, or eaten raw as a salad vegetable served with chilli dips called nam prik.
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Thai Orange or "Som"
Peak season:
September to February for the tangerine or "Som Keow Wan"
September to November for the Sweet Orange
Fresh Thai tangerines have a highly aromatic thin greenish-yellow peel and are refreshingly sweet when ripe, perfect when served as fresh fruit or as a juice or cocktail mixer. To make the most of its delicate refreshing taste, oranges are served in very light syrup on crushed ice.
Orange is major crop in Fang, up north of Chiang Mai.
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Pineapple or "Sapparote"
Peak season: April to June and December and January
There are two distinct varieties of pineapple grown in Thailand. An extremely sweet and succulent pineapple with softer lemon-yellow pulp called the Siracha pineapple and a crunchy pineapple with a delicate sweet taste. A pinch of salt is often rubbed into freshly cut pineapple to offset its bite.
The Siracha and Phuket pineapples flourish in the South in the provinces of Surat Thani and Hua Hin. A new variety of miniature Phuket pineapples are now grown at The Royal Project experimental agricultural stations in northern Thailand.
Chiang Rai and Lampang have special varieties of pineapple.
Thailand is one of Southeast Asia's largest producers and exporter of pineapples in the form of canned pineapple and juice. Excess pineapple is also sun-dried, and processed into jams, chewy toffee and candy.
As fragrant pineapple adds natural sweetness and contributes to the harmony of flavours that is the distinctive quality of Thai cuisine, it is commonly used as a flavouring or garnish in savoury dishes, for example, pineapple curries such as Kaeng Sapparote, Saow Nam or Khao Ob Sapparote - Rice Baked in Pineapple.
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Thai Mango or "Ma-Muang"
Peak season: April to June
All Thai mangoes are sweet, juicy, and fragrant, when ripe. However the "Nam Dawk Mai" and "Ok Long" variety are best known. They are the favourite choices as dessert fruit or as "Mango and Sticky (glutinous) Rice", a popular dessert during the peak of the mango season in the summer.
"Ma-muang Keow Savoey" and "Ma-muang Rat" are also delicious as ripe mango but Thais prefer to enjoy both of these as raw mango served with a dry salt-and-sugar dip seasoned with crushed chilli called prik kab kleua or a savoury chilli dip prepared by blending palm sugar with fish sauce heated to a caramel-like consistency called nam pla wan.
Green Keow Savoey is sweet and has a powdery texture, while Ma-muang Rat is predominantly sour with a hint of sweet.
Raw mangoes add a more delicate sour flavour to dishes and are featured in Thai salads such as Yam Ma-muang and in chilli dips.
Thai mangoes come in many other preserved forms such as delicious mango ice-cream, or pickled mango - Ma-muang Dong, Ma-muang Chae-Im or dried mango, and Ma-muang Kuan.
Mangos are a major fruit crop in Sakhon Nakhon province in Northern Thailand, Yasothon, Si Sa Ket and Chaiyaphum in Northeastern Thailand, Ratchaburi and Chon Buri in Central Thailand, and Prachin Buri in Eastern Thailand.
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Gooseberry or “Ma-yom”
Small yellow berries used in desserts & jams. Taste is a hit sour.
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Jackfruit or "Kanoon"
Peak season: January to May
Jackfruit becomes sweeter as it ripens. When served chilled, the chewy flesh has a crunchier texture to it.
Given its natural sweetness and fragrance, jackfruit is often used as a topping to enhance a wide range of Thai desserts such as a rich traditional home-made coconut ice-cream, Ruam Mitr - a light dessert with young coconut meat, an assortment of cooked strips of rice flour, syrup and a dash of coconut milk topped with shaved ice, or Jackfruit served with Sticky Rice, plain and simple. Deep-fried jackfruit is also a popular snack and dessert. Jackfruit ice-cream is gaining popularity.
A versatile fruit, every part of the jackfruit is edible and leaves, flowers and seeds are featured in savoury dishes such as curries or served with nam prik chilli dips.
The provinces of Chonburi, Uttaradit, Nakhon Ratchasima are famous for their jackfruit.
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Longan or "Lam Yai"
Peak season: June to August
Longan has a thin brittle olive-brown outer shell that is easy to crack open.
In the Bieow Keow variety commonly found in fruit stalls, markets and supermarkets, the smooth translucent flesh that surrounds the round black seed is juicier and exceptionally sweet. In the See Chompoo variety, the light champagne pink flesh is noticeably crisp.
Longan is usually eaten fresh but is also popular when served as a dessert called Khao Nieow Lam Yai - a fragrant rice pudding cooked in coconut milk. Dried longan is double-boiled and served as a refreshing Chinese-style tea, hot or with crushed ice. Canned longan is simply served with crushed ice.
Grown in the Northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Lamphun, Longan is exported fresh, canned and dried to Europe, the United States and Asia.
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Lychees or "Lin Chee"
Peak season: April to June
Prime grade fresh lychees are large in size with a thicker bright red skin. Lychees with thick, succulent flesh surrounding a relatively small seed, such as in the "Hong Huai" and "Chakrapat" (Emperor lychees), are considered to be the best quality. These are predominantly sweet. However for those who prefer flavourful lychees with a sharper taste, look out for oval-shaped lychees with brittle skin. These are sweet and slightly sour.
There is tremendous worldwide demand for this exotic dessert fruit and Thai lychees are one of Thailand's leading economic crops ranking high on the list of top exports shipped to all corners of the globe in a variety of forms - fresh, dried, frozen, and canned, as well as lychee juice or wine. Lychees are primarily grown in the Central Plains and in Northern Thailand.
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Strawberry
This well-known fruit is now found almost everywhere. December and January are the best months in Chiangmai.
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Lansat
Peak season: July to September
The oval-shaped Langsat is native to Thailand. Peel back the light yellowish-brown skin to expose small, plump segments of translucent flesh. Some contain seeds. Perfectly ripened plump Langsat have a delicate refreshing sweet-and-sour taste and
a fragrant aroma. Very young langsat tend to be very sour.
It is grown in Uttaradit Province in Northern Thailand, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Chumphon, Trang and Songkhla in the south.
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