All About Bali’s Fruits

Pepino

Other names: melon pear or sweet cucumber

Pepino originates from South America and is a perennial plant that grows as a branched shrub, reaching up to one and a half meters tall, with delicious and aromatic fruits.

The fruits of Pepino vary greatly in size, shape, color, and quality. Many exhibit an exotic appearance with a bright yellow background and jagged purple streaks.

A ripe Pepino's flesh is either yellow or colorless, with a sweet and sour flavor, and is very juicy, consisting of 92% water. It is larger and resembles a vegetable, looking like an eggplant but tasting like a cucumber!

The fruit's sourness is due to its vitamin C content. Pepino is rich in carotene, iron, and pectin substances, along with a large amount of vitamins A, B1, B2, and PP.

You can often find Pepino for sale at Carrefour supermarkets.

Jambu air
This fruit has many names: chompoo, jambolan, yambozaili, or Malay apple.

The season is from April to July.
The fruits are bell-shaped, pear-like, pink-red, and seedless. Inside, there is white, firm, juicy, crispy flesh, resembling an apple in texture. Ripe jambu air has a pleasant sweet aroma.
When chilled, it is a great thirst quencher.
The fruit is very low in calories, containing only 25 kcal. The exotic jambu air has no contraindications. It is very beneficial for people with diabetes, as it contains bioactive substances that help lower blood sugar levels.

Apart from being eaten fresh, jambu air is used to make white and red wine and is stewed with spices. It is used to make jams, jellies, and marinades. Essential oil is extracted from its leaves.

Jambu air is also used in folk medicine:
- Bark decoction for intestinal disorders;
- Root decoction as a diuretic;
- Leaf juice as a facial lotion;
- The pulp, seeds, leaves, and bark have antimicrobial properties and are also used to regulate blood pressure and treat colds.

Sawo

Local name: sawo
International name: sapodilla, sapota, chikoo, naseberry, nispero
Latin name: Manilkara zapota

This fruit was originally found in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands.

It was introduced to the Philippines during Spanish colonization. Now it grows in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Mexico.

The fruit is a large berry with a diameter of 4–8 cm. Inside, the flesh ranges from pale yellow to earthy brown with a grainy texture, similar in consistency to a well-ripened pear. Each fruit contains one to six seeds. The seeds are hard, glossy, and black, resembling beans. They easily separate from the flesh.

The fruit has a pleasant sweet, malty-chocolate flavor. The skin is very thin and can be easily cut with a knife, allowing the fruit to be eaten whole, with the seeds removed.

Sawo flesh is rich in antioxidant compounds – a tannin complex with anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, and anthelmintic effects. The anti-inflammatory tannins strengthen the stomach and intestines. In these properties, sawo can be compared to pomegranate and persimmon.

100g of fresh sawo flesh contains 24.5% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C. Vitamin C strengthens the immune system and blood vessels. The high vitamin A content makes sawo beneficial for vision, skin, and mucous membranes.

The B vitamins in sawo fruits, specifically folic acid, pantothenic acid, and niacin, play an important role in metabolic processes.

Noni

Season: All year round
Other names: Morinda citrifolia
Latin name: Morinda citrifolia

The noni fruit grows throughout Southeast Asia. Indonesian sailors helped spread the plant by taking the fruits on their journeys and planting trees in new lands.

In the West, consumers typically use its juice, which is made from fermented noni fruit. The fermented fruit juice contains added sugar, making its taste similar to strong kvass.

The Morinda tree, which produces noni fruits, belongs to the coffee family.

Noni fruits have a strong smell, earning them the nickname "cheese fruit," and in some cases, "vomit fruit."

Noni's smell is off-putting, and its pulp tastes pungent with hints of fermentation and old cheese. Noni seeds have a bitterness similar to allspice.


On some Pacific islands, noni is a staple food. It is eaten raw with salt or cooked; its seeds become edible when roasted.

In Bali, noni is believed to have excellent healing properties and is thought to ensure longevity. It is attributed with mystical properties. Natives of different Pacific countries believe it can revive the dead, grant longevity, and increase fertility. In India, Morinda is considered a sacred tree and referred to as the "fruit of the hungry".

Noni juice contains carbohydrates and fiber in moderate amounts, making it useful for dietary nutrition and weight management.

Noni juice contains a significant amount of vitamin C and niacin (vitamin B3). It also contains moderate amounts of vitamin A, iron, potassium, calcium, and sodium.

The vitamin C content in noni juice is half that of orange juice. However, the sodium content in noni juice is higher than in orange juice. Overall, noni juice and orange juice are similar in their micronutrient composition.

Noni juice contains a large number of biologically active substances (still part of the coffee family), but their effects on the human body are not yet well-understood.

In Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, and other Polynesian islands, green noni fruit is used by natives to treat diabetes and liver diseases.

In Hawaii, noni oil (the fruit contains linoleic acid) is used to treat inflammations, acne, and to moisturize the skin.

Eight years ago, the US Department of Healthy Eating questioned the benefits of noni products, doubting their advantageous properties. To date, there are no clinical proofs of noni juice's benefits.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has listed noni juice in its list of prohibited substances.

How to eat noni?

The recommended amount for an adult should not exceed 150-200 grams. The noni juice intake should be limited to no more than 300 ml. Consuming larger amounts will not be absorbed by the body and may irritate the stomach lining.

It is best to consume noni raw. You can try adding it to vegetable salads, mixing it into a classic curry sauce, or combining it with meat dishes. It is not recommended to pair noni with fatty foods.

For a healthy adult, this fruit should be introduced to the diet in small quantities over a few days.

Exceeding the recommended amounts of noni may cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal disorders, skin rashes, and headaches.

Cempedak

Latin name: Artocarpus integer

Each cempedak tree produces fruits with different flavors. There are cempedaks that taste like ice cream, candy, nougat, Baileys liqueur, and chocolate. Today, the fruits are widely cultivated in Thailand, Indonesia, and other tropical countries. Cempedak can often be found for sale in Carrefour supermarkets.

Ripe cempedak is very soft and delicate but not as creamy as durian; its fibers are somewhat rougher. This fruit is often mistaken for jackfruit due to its similar shape.

It is one of the most strongly scented fruits. Different fruits smell differently. Some smell like tar, gasoline, diesel. Some like onion salad (with too much onion). Some like buns and other pastries. Some like a mix of diesel and buns.

How to clean cempedak? You need to cut the skin of the cempedak lengthwise, then break the fruit in half and eat the exposed sections. It is best to cut cempedak with gloves or wear regular bags on your hands since its skin and inedible core contain latex, which can only be washed off with vegetable oil and nothing else. In this respect, it is very similar to jackfruit.

Cempedak is not only consumed raw. Its pulp, for example, is fried. Many different desserts are made from the fruit. The seeds can also be eaten, which are very tasty and nutritious. The pulp is also used to make delicious salads, snacks, and it is added to meat dishes. Additionally, cempedak slices are used to decorate various dishes.

It is a very filling and nutritious fruit, with a caloric value even higher than bananas – 117 kilocalories per 100 grams. However, it does not contain fats, unlike durian, which can cause significant weight gain.

Due to its fiber content, cempedak improves digestion and helps prevent or cure constipation. It has been observed that regular consumption of the fruit can slow down the degeneration of skin cells, which in turn improves skin elasticity and makes it smooth.

Cempedak is a filling food, but it does not contain fats, which means it can be consumed during weight loss and by people with obesity. The fruit contains ascorbic acid, which is necessary for strengthening the immune system, and helps the body resist viruses and infections. The fruit contains potassium, which is needed for the proper functioning of the cardiovascular system.

Thanks to its calcium content, cempedak positively affects the condition of hair, nails, and bones. Because of the special substances it contains, the fruit improves brain function.