Sam Neua is an interesting capital city out in the Northeastern area of Laos
It is just west of Vietnam and south of China the surrounding areas around Sam
Neua are inhabited by several tribes
So if you visit the marketplace here you will find a diverse selection of interesting things for sale that come from many cultures
Among the piles of freshly farmed and foraged produce you will find heaps of rodents bugs and critters for sale
Some of them cut open to show the freshness of their entrails
I went to the market looking for interesting fruit and was sadly disappointed
I was informed that the rental cost for the main marketplace
Recently increased and many of the small tribal vendors couldn't afford the rent
However, I heard about another market about two kilometres north of the central city, and I set off the hunt for something new
Here I was not disappointed
an
Old woman at the local Market was selling this peculiar fruit
She only had three of them for sale and they provoked much interest even by the local shoppers
I had no idea what the hell this thing was or if it was even edible
But I bought one for about 50 cents, and took it back to my hotel
after much deliberation and discussion with other fruit obsessives
I found that this is what you call a Kadsura heteroclita
Extremely rare fruit that grows in Southeast Asia and is used medicinally
I've been thinking I'd be able to find some really crazy fruit here and um I haven't really seen that much
until now I found one that I think kind of
Makes up for the lack of how interesting things that I've found this guy check this guy out
How crazy is this looking but I looked it up. It says it's edible. So I'm going to attempt to eat it
And not the whole thing I think I'm gonna take like it comes apart like little the lobes here, you see like
they just
They just come out just like that
It's like these little little segments and some of them look it looks like it's a little rough. You know. There's no bugs or anything
But you see, it's like a little brown
So I'm gonna poke through this and just trying to find like a really nice wedge a nice clean wedge that looks nice and fresh
That's that's a better one. Yeah, there you go
And I'm gonna wash the hell out of this, and I'm gonna nibble at it and see if it tastes any good
I took one and I washed it. I'm still gonna peel it as well
It's like how cautious I am with this
I've gotten sick eating fruit before and I'm not willing to let that happen again
so let me just
peel it like a little
like a little
banana
Smells like a little little sour. I can't really describe it. It's very mild smelling
you know inside there's
Little, little seeds and they have like a like a gel around them
Picking around the size of like a watermelon seed, but as you see there they're like like a light brown color
There is just like a little fleshy area at the bottom here
And there's the seeds that have like a little jelly kind of casing over it
It's pretty good actually
But for towards the end of it. Here's more flavor to it. There's a little more creamy looking
This could be a hard one to describe
you know I am picking up like a
Like a flowery kind of taste like um a floral taste kind of like lavender
Especially when I eat the piece at the bottom here the fruit. That's like nestled in there
So the flavor of it is um
Kind of different. It's difficult to describe of course but I
I would say it's sweet. It's a little bit sour like a little bit of tartness to it
Um it has like a citrusy kind of taste kind of like a little bit like um like a mild
grapefruit or lemon rind
Kind of flavor it reminds me a little bit
like
langsat and
a little bit like like a wampee especially cuz it has a
Little bit of like a peppery taste the way that a wampee does and it's got a little bit of a citrusy
Like berry-ish kind of flavor like a langsat does so um yeah, this is really
Interesting fruit and I mean look at it. It's beautiful like this is like an incredible looking thing I
think um
This is probably the strangest looking fruit. I've ever seen and
I'm lucky to found it because this is
if it is what I think it is um
It's very rare this is
Incredible find no matter what it is and I did eat some of it. So hopefully I won't die, and I won't get parasites
but I'll just have to see but
Yeah, I mean, I've spent
you know a lot of time going to the market places in Laos hoping to find you know interesting fruits and
So far this thing takes the cake if I don't find anything else interesting
I think that's okay because this one is a pretty big one. I'm happy. I mean this makes the
ventures out to the market places worthwhile
Yeah, so thanks for watching me eat something that you probably will never get a chance to eat
but if you ever find yourself in you know remote area in
Southeast Asia
Take a look around the market places you never know you'll find um you might find something you know rare and crazy like this
So anyway, thanks for watching
you