Grace D. Plunk: What is Rambutan? And should I eat it??

Hello from Florida!! (waves) I’m here running and eating pizza, watermelon and weird tropical foods like Ramutan. Have you tried it?

Wait! First let me give a big shout-out of love to the Florida weather on this trip. LOVE!!

Ben’s family is from Englewood, FL and I used to come with him to visit every June (HOT HOT HOT) and December (some years it was mild and one year it was actually cold!). Plus we made a few visits in September also very HOT!

I love it here no matter what time of year because:

a.) It’s super flat and I love running flats or downhills.

b.) It’s a lil beachy town with super chill vibes. I really feel like I’m ‘getting away’ from real life and responsibilities for a bit when I’m here.

c.) Ben’s mom hooks up the food! And she loves grocery shopping so we go to Publix and walk up and down every aisle – just like I like! I don’t have Publix in SoCal so I love seeing the other foods I don’t get at my local Ralph’s.

d.) I forgot this one.

Anyway.

Coming here in March/April during Spring Break gives me a little bit of a different take on this place. I usually come in the ‘off season’ and this is super high season!! The beach is so much busier than I’m used to and it reminds me that people come here to vacation. And I’m grateful I got to visit again and see my Florida family this week too.

Yesterday I hit up the grocery store because I needed – yes, NEEDED – grapes.

And I spotted this – Rambutan and had to try it. It’s a tropical fruit that looks a lot like Lychee… it’s in the same family but not exactly the same.

From Wikipedia: The rambutan is native to the Malay-Indonesian region, and other regions of tropical Southeast Asia. It is closely related to several other edible tropical fruits including the lychee, longan, and mamoncillo.

It’s so fun! It looks like a sea anemone or something!!

But how do you eat Rambutan?

Luckily the package had directions…

Cut around the outside. The skin is thicker than I expected.

Peel off the hairy skin…

Take the outer skin off and use it as a loofah….

or hair brush?

Hey – supposedly the name comes from the Indonesian word for hair!! Ha!

or back scratcher??

Or maybe they’d be great fake nails?

But really… it was good! It’s similar to a grape on the inside BUT a grape with SEEDS. So, I don’t think I’d get them again but I’m happy I tried them!! I’ll stick to grapes without seeds (and without spiders).