Mangosteens are available in the US now, and I've had them there,
but for the longest time they weren't available, they were illegal in the US,
because they're afraid of fruit flies coming from Asia - Asian fruit flies,
so these were illegal up until 2007 and then they became available again.
So I remember I was actually in New York City in 2007,
and I would see these like Mangosteens suddenly just, like, popping up,
and people were kind of, like, excited about that because they weren't available for such a long time.
The one that I just had in my hand had a bug on it, so I just threw it out. Let me get another one.
-laughs-
Okay, I think this one is okay...
How you can tell if a mangosteen is ripe is you want it to be soft.
Well not incredibly soft, but it just like yields a little bit.
When these are underripe they are rock hard, and when they're overripe, they're rock hard.
Sometimes when they're hard you can open them up, they'll be okay, but you can't really tell.
And one thing that I noticed in the US is that whenever you go to fruit stand that has these they're always hard,
and that's because, like, they're being transported over from Asia and they sit around a long time.
But being in Malaysia right now, and even when I was in China and other Asian countries you see these everywhere,
and you can tell they're good because they give a little bit.
The only thing is that sometimes they crack; you see a little crack there,
The reason why I just threw one out is because I saw a little bug pop out of there. There might be a bug in here, yay!
So let me open it. I've seen people just like rip into them.
I don't know how to do that properly and I don't want to make a mess,
so I'm gonna use a knife,
just to score the outside.
Let's see if we got any friends in here...
Hello?
Okay, no bugs in that side...Alright, I think we're good.
Kind of looks like a cross-section of like an orange, but the little segments come loose,
and they're very, very tasty.
Good stuff.
Mangosteen is very hard to describe as a fruit. It's very unique
I can't really compare it to another kind of fruit, so...
You're gonna have to go out and get your own to really appreciate it, but they are very good.
They're very mild tasting, but they have like a little, like, sourness to them. It's not overwhelming.
Some people say they taste like grapes. I think they're trying too hard.
I don't think they really taste like grapes that much.
I can say they're mild in the way that a grape is, I guess?
But the flavor is, um, it's very unique.
They're very sweet.
Very, uh...
Very flavorful.
Let's see... Just to give you a close-up on these little wedges,
and there's several wedges inside, usually you get like maybe, like, six or seven wedges,
and the bigger ones will have a seed inside.
So I'll pull one of these guys out...
like if you see in there, you can see the little seed.
But the seeds are very soft and I'm pretty sure you can eat them.
They're kind of hard not to especially the smaller ones.
To give a little bit more information,
these are actually not nutritious at all.
The wedges inside aren't good for you. They're just full of sugar and carbohydrates.
They're not really that great. You may think like, "exotic fruits, oh they have to be, like, so healthy for you!"
This one isn't.
The outside, however, the rind, is, as you see it's like dark purple which means it's full of polyphenol,
so this is high in antioxidants and anti-cancers.
The rind is inedible. you can't just like bite into this, it wouldn't be so good,
so I guess you have to prepare it in order to get the benefits out of it.
So people don't eat this part, they eat the stuff inside that isn't actually good for you.
A popular tag line for Mangosteen is "Mangosteens: the Queen of fruits" and that comes from Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria was a big fan of these and offered,
well, supposedly offered a hundred pound sterling to anyone who would be able togive her fresh mangosteens.
I think that's pretty much all I have to say about these. They're very, very interesting fruit.
If you find yourself in a Chinatown, go to the produce stands, go to a Chinese supermarket,
they usually will have some of these.
They are available in the US but you ususally have to look for them,
so if you're near a city that has a Chinatown, go track them down because these are really, really good.
And, um, yeah, that's about it. That is the Mangosteen. Check it out.