In need of coc

If you're in need of coc, you'll find plenty available on the streets of Saigon at the moment. October and November are big coc months. I find three sellers at the junction of Hai Ba Trung and Nguyen Huu Cau streets in District 1. The one pictured above plies coc from a bicycle basket stall a length or two up the road from a guy with his nuts out. Most popular coc in Saigon come from either Vinh Long or Can Tho in the Mekong Delta. However, I understand other southern provinces are known to send their best coc to market too when they're big enough.

5,000VD buys me three hard cocs and a small bag of salt to dip them into. Coc is a fruit with a big seed in the middle and an orangey, tart, soft, juicy, flesh.

Can't say I'm a coc lover, but I'll give anything a go. I'm not sure what coc is in English. In French I think it's pomme something or other. If you know, please let me know in the comments. Meanwhile, if you spot coc for sale on the streets, have a nibble.

Comments

[Lei]

Cool. A new fruit to try although I've probably seen them before and thought they were potatoes. We recently got turned on to langsat/bon bon.

[pieman]

Yes- they're quite fun. Not quite to my tastes, but i think they're good - if you know what i mean.

Dunno what the langsat/bob bon is. You got a link to picture? English word?

[pieman]

Ahhaha - found the one you mean:

http://tinyurl.com/andfy

Also, if you follow the link there's a pic of more coc, but no English name :(

[cour marly]

Langsat/bon bon is known as buah duku in Malaysia. I'm not big on them though they are rather tasty.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/langsat.html

Will have to try coc when I go to Vietnam. Have never heard of it, but found this link that has no picture but the description sounds right, full name in vietnamese is listed as 'trai coc'.

http://www.asiafood.org/glossary_1.cfm?alpha=A&wordid=2362&startno=1&endno=25

"Ambarella (Spondias cytherea, S. dulcis)

Other names for this fruit and close relatives are Otaheite apple, Tahitian quince, Jamaica plum, golden apple and wi."

[anthony]

I find gentle polishing firms them up nicely.

[pieman]

Thx for the link cour marly. Most interesting.

Anthony, polish off elsewhere, please.

[Sticky]

Who needs porn when one has noodlepie!

[Carlos from Castro]

you are our new hot gay icon, pieman!!

[Carlos from Castro]

We have made you our new hot gay icon/kitchen God! Seriously.

[vunguyen]

The one in the last picture doesnt look very good, IMO. Oh, and you can even eat still 'green' coc with 'mam ruoc', haha i love it

[C]

vunguyen is right, already salivated a bucket just looking at it (sour)!

[veruca salt]

Wow, I didn't know you were suppose to eat it ripe. I have only ever seen it sold small and green when it is really crunchy.

I don't love them but when given a bag full I find them very moreish. Maybe I'm just addicted to the chilli salt dipping sauce.

[Godknows]

How about a few cocs with a beer which is so common in the south for drinkers?
Nothing like some cocs, some nuts and some beers hahaha

[santos.]

tsk. i have langsat for you, but alas, being a mere girl, i don't have a coc for you.

[jaap]

My dictionary says ivy tree. Not sure what that means in English. Have you heard of it?

[pieman]

Thx all :) Thinkt he dictionary must be wrong jaap. Ivy tree, as far as I know, is inedible, poisonous even and only produces leaves and not fruit. I could be worng, but I don't think I am.

[Lei]

I just tried it and my maid told me it should be eaten crunchy not soft. I didn't mind the taste but it's so fibrous and the pit has so many sharp barbs!

[pieman]

Here's th thing. I've tried it both ways. The toad's nanny bought the first batch - the quite hard and fibrous variety as you mentioned. However, I did quite really like it. A day or two later I saw these chaps on the street old and decided to give them another blast. I left them on the kitchen table for a day or so and found I prefferred them 'hung' a little - like a pheasant... Hey - I just realised I like my coc hung...

IMO there are better fruits in the Vietnamese pantry. Nice to try these though, innit?

[Lei]

No wonder this blog is so popular. Your humor.... ;)

My throat was a little irritated afterwards and I had to eat a banana to sooth it. I think I better end this comment before anyone continues the analogy!

I may also let it ripen more next time (will not type the name of the fruit anymore!).

[Louisa]

Could it be a Sapodilla? Except that they have up to 12 shiny black seeds and I can't see any in your pic.

[Petit]

In Trinidad we have a similar looking fruit called pommecthyere - see June Apple in the link below, although the flesh is not as mushy as in your picture and the seed is very spiny - ouch.

However, I spotted a similar looking fruit to our pomerac in the chinese market and was kind of disappointed when it tasted nothing like what I expected

http://www.tntisland.com/fruits.html

[anchoi]

IMO, Trai coc is better eaten green, where the street vendor split them slightly open into a mushroom shape and stick them on a stick. The green version is sour and crunchy. Just makes my mouth waters thinking about it.

[kenneth]

uh sorry but pomme is french for appple not coc

[kenneth]

also for all ya that want the name for coc, i dont know if anyone had posted this one yet becuase im too lazy to read ahahah

but anyway, it called: Ambarella

Spondias dulcis (sciencefic name)

a.k.a. Golden Apple, Wi-Tree, Otaheite Apple

[Vanessa Martindale]

direct translation
coc = toad

the shape is toad like

[ChauHo]

Hi,
Please refer the link below for more information of "Coc" fruit
I'm Saigoner

The Ambarella (Spondias cytherea) also known as the Hog plum or Golden apple is one of the newer fruits on the ever expanding list of exotics quickly gaining in popularity.

http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/ambarella.htm

[Rhonda]

This is a fruit common to the caribbean known as POMMECYTHERE- which is a french word - it makes for rather tasty chutnies, "chows", preserves, wines-to name a few :D

as far as I know they are called pond apple, monkey apple

[Alecia]

In Jamaica we call it June Plum. We peel off the skin and eat it with salt . It look exactly like the one you have in the picture and they are sold in the market here.

[john Levinston]

OK, there are different varieties of this fruit. It is definitely a tropical fruit, and many tropical fruits do not have English name for them because they are part of the western fruits we know.

Yes, there are green, yellow to red for these varieties. Green=sour, crunchy. Yellow and re-ish have soft flesh to mushy if over ripened. They do have different taste between green and yellowish reds.

As for the the dipping chili-salt or other sauces, anything salty will help counter the sourness of the fruits. You can dip most, if not all, tropical fruits in the chili-salt or sauces of your choice to your tastes. Here are my favorites: Guava (crunchy ones), mangosteen, rambutan, jack fruits, green (unripped) mango with sugar-fish sauce, ...etc.

You can find these fruits with the best quality from Singapore because they are imported from neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Phillippines. I am drooling as I am typing this......