Coco Loto Coconut Juice with Coconut Jell

Coco Loto is a product of Thailand - I think we paid less than $2 for this little bottle of "juice" (10.5 oz). The juice contained 169 calories.

The ingredients are coconut juice, water, sugar, coconut jell... In my opinion the water should have been the first ingredient b/c that is pretty much what I thought it tasted like. It was a bit thicker than water and a bit sweeter but I really couldn't taste any coconut flavor.

The girl liked it and thought the square jells added some "texture"...she was content with the coconutfulness of it "because kids have more taste buds" she added.

I did like the little bits of "coconut jell" just because it was something different. For the amount of calories and lack of flavor I'd pass on this again.

I give it extra points for the fun tab for opening the bottle.

Dried Anchovies - Thailand

Zap Spicy Snacks - dried anchovies...product of Thailand.

The girl was eager to try it so she went first. I'm always happy when she offers to go first on things I think I won't like :)

Well none of us liked the dried anchovies...I think we were expecting them to be salty and fishy but instead they were SWEET and fishy. Not a good combination.

Of course if I had just read the ingredients I would have seen that the number one ingredient was anchovy and the second was SUGAR. Ugh.

Rambutan "Hairy Fruit" - Thailand

Ever since I first saw a picture of these little fellas, I've been wanting to find one to try. I wish I could have found a fresh one - but canned Rambutan will have to do.

Rambutan is a tropical fruit and the name actually means "hairy fruit". The fruit is a reddish color and is covered in little spines. Here is a photo of the fruit - very beautiful.

I liked the taste - it was soft and chewy and reminded me of the flavor of canned mandarin oranges.


Dd took a small bite and said it tasted like lychees and water chestnuts. Well she has never tasted lychees so she must have it confused with some other fruit. She does love water chestnuts and can eat an entire can of them. When I was putting the groceries away yesterday I noticed a can of chestnuts and I know I did not place them in the shopping cart.

Ds thought it tasted kind of like apple juice (which he likes) "but at the same time terrible."

If I think the kids' adverse reactions might affect one another - I try to get them to taste it independently of each other. Otherwise if the girl hears the boy spit it in the trash, she might be more hesitant to try it.

Mini Mooncake Mhonthong - Thailand

When I purchased these cute little mooncakes, I did in fact notice the picture of our beloved "King of Fruit", the durian, on the front of the package.

But knowing that just because there is a cake called an "apple cake" it does not mean that all you are going to taste is pure sweet apples - but rather that it would be a nice cakish cake with a slight apple flavor. As well, carrot cake tastes NOTHING like carrots whatsoever. So I saw the cute little mooncakes, the picture of the durian and bought it anyway.

I thought today would be a nice day for the mooncakes. Dd had been bugging me for some time to allow her to make some "Bento Boxes" for lunch today - and I finally let her. It took her over a half hour to make her cute little boxes for her and her brother - consisting of soda crackers w/butter (since we were out of cheese) and pepperoni, shredded carrot and apple slices "carved" into various objects like a butterfly, moon etc.

Bento boxes are Asian and mooncakes are Asian - so it kind of all goes together.

Neither one wanted to try the mooncakes initially. Dd took the first bite (she can be very brave!)..."DURIAN! Sweet but like durian - this is going in the garbage." That didn't sound too encouraging to me - but I thought how much like durian could a little cake taste. A lot!

I took a small bite and it was PURE DURIAN tasting. No cake taste with a mild durian flavor. It was kind of a cake exterior but it was dense and inside was a paste? of what tasted like a spoonful of durian. I admit I did not even swallow it. Mine too went into the garbage.


The wee lad said "This is terrible smelling (it wasn't really) - like durian ...just say I didn't want to try it".

"Mooncakes are a Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. ...Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration." (from Wikipedia)

Red Cargo Rice - Thailand

I purchased a 5 lb bag of Red Cargo Rice. It comes from Thailand - I bought it some time ago so I don't recall the price.

From what I could tell it was about as healthy as brown rice, so I thought it would be a colorful addition to brown rice.

It is a pretty color. Problem is it stains. I cooked some in the microwave in a white Pyrex Casserole dish and it stained the dish! Even when I was rinsing the rice I could see the water turning a bit reddish.

The red rice tastes similar to brown - but it has a bitter edge to it. Probably mixed with other things you would not notice the bitterness so much. Though I did make some rice pudding with it - and it did have that bitter flavor.

Like I do with brown rice, I soaked the red rice for about 6 hours. This cut down on the slow cooking time.

Today I made some chicken enchiladas and added some cooked red rice to it - a good combination.

When looking at rice at the world food store - I was tempted to buy one of those huge bags of rice that are packed in cool zippered cloth bags... But I don't think we'd eat that much rice in a year...

Durian - "The King of Fruit" ....FINALLY!

Yesterday my daughter's wish came true. Probably way back in November we read about durian "King of the Fruit" - and ever since she has wanted to taste it. I've never been brave enough. A month or so we found some dried durian "chips" and I thought that would satisfy her. It didn't. She still wanted to taste one fresh (well as fresh as you can get it in the USA - which means frozen fresh).

So whenever we'd walk past the frozen whole durians at the store she'd comment how she'd still like to taste one. A frozen whole durian costs about $1.60 a lb and they are quite heavy. A hard spiky shell on the outside, a seed on the inside - and you end up paying for a lot that will go to waste. So it was partly the cost that kept me from buying one for us to try.

Today we were looking at the durians as usual when dd piped up excitedly "Look!" It was a package of frozen fresh durian out of it's shell. One pound packages cost $3.89. I decided we could buy one.

When we got home - I left the durian in the garage to unthaw (and to keep the odor from penetrating the entire house). I noticed the cashier put the packaged durian in a sep. bag from the rest of the groceries and triple bagged it. She knew.

The durian came in a hard plastic lidded container that was wrapped in plastic. Inside were 2 "rolls" of durian wrapped in plastic wrap. Even with all the wrappings and inside the container, you could smell it. Not a nasty bathroom smell (as some folks claim) - but rather it smelled like onions. Strong onions.


After supper tonight I reminded the girl about the durian and we, along with little brother, went out to the garage. I brought my camera, notebook and 3 spoons. Dd was so eager for the "unveiling". She takes a whiff, "Smells terrible!" But she bravely takes some into her mouth. Her verdict was, "Tastes like onion pudding...not all that great but still glad I tasted it!" "Yuck". That was the verdict of her doll Rosie, who also had a taste. The boy disappeared inside - he was not brave enough to take a chance on "onion pudding."

I was scared too. But I tried it. It was sweet and fruity but oniony at the same time. It wasn't nasty - unless you think onions are nasty. Not my idea of a fruit flavor - but I've definitely tasted worse things in my life. The consistency was very creamy and it still had some ice particles in it - so it was almost like durian ice-cream, albeit with stringy bits inside.

So now it's done. No more requests for a whole durian. No more wondering how bad it smells or tastes. The mystery is solved. I'm glad we did it. It might sound wasteful, but it's all in the name of science and education you see, but the rest of it ended up in the garbage can. It's not something you can really keep in the fridge to eat later in the week, and even if it could - who would eat it?

Lychee Drink - Beverage from Thailand

This lychee beverage, a product of Thailand, cost about a dollar.

Lychee is a fruit grown on trees in parts of Asia. "The lychee fruit is about 1½ to 2 inches in size, oval to rounded heart shaped and the bumpy skin is red in color. Once you peel the skin off, the crisp juicy flesh of a lychee fruit is white or pinkish, translucent and glossy like the consistency of a grape, but the taste is sweeter. Lychees have a sub acid sweet taste and have a wonderful freshness to them."

I didn't bother to get the kids to try it b/c I pretty much know what they would say - "I don't like it." They may or may not take a sip before determining the taste - they just know in their soul that an unusual fruit drink will taste nasty.

I liked it. It was very fragrant and fruity and didn't have a nectar-ish consistency.

Mangosteen Juice Drink

What is a mangosteen??? Why it's the "Queen of Fruit!" How could you not know of this wonderful tasting, wonderful smelling, royal fruit? How could I not know?

I am amazed at how many fruits and vegetables I have never heard of. I see how limited we are growing up in North America, shopping at the typical grocery stores.

I know I do not eat as many fruits/vegetables as I should, and it has helped me to find access and information to a wider variety of produce from around the world. If I don't want to each spinach I can now eat bok choy. Not only does it taste great - but it has a very cool sounding name.

The CDC has a website with some interesting features...recipe cards for children, recipe cards for adults and for each month of the year they feature a fruit and vegetable of the month. Go ahead and print out a recipe or two and try them this week with your children or just try them yourself.

Well now back to the old mangosteen....

In spite of it's name - it is not a type of mango. It is a tropical fruit from Asia, about the size of a small orange - with a thick rind. The inside is white and creamy.

Here is a great picture of a mangosteen. Additional information about mangosteens are found here.

I read an article about someone purchasing mangosteens in Brooklyn for $11 a piece! At a price like that I'll have to settle for the juice drink.

The Mangosteen Juice Drink - 11.8 fl oz for under $2.00, is a product of Thailand.

The smell and flavor reminds me of Passionfruit. It is a cloudy, whitish liquid and it is the consistency of nectar.

This juice drink lists the ingredients as follows: water, mangosteen juice (30% sugar, citric acid). Even though I typed it as written - I'm thinking they mean that it contains 30% juice - not 30% sugar.

I like the flavor - but I don't like the consistency.

The kids didn't like it. Dd dislikes all juice except apple juice (which is fine by me b/c she is a big fruit eater and I'd rather have her eat her fruit than drink it). Ds loves juice - but isn't crazy about fruit. My dd thought it tasted like a mango, but then added "well not exactly." Ds said "Kind of sweet...don't like it...kind of a vegetably strange flavor in it."

I think this beverage would be better mixed into some type of punch. As is, it is overly sweet.

Tinned Octopus Slices

It is quite funny to see the kids in the aisle with the canned body parts of various sea monsters. They are excitedly talking about or grabbing things they'd like to try...Dd was hoping to buy a can that contains snails. Well actually we did buy one - but she was hoping to buy the can that held a snail so big there was only one inside the can. I'm not so sure I could handle that one. But being that the one giant slug would have cost $13 - not much chance I will have to deal with it.

We also bought some octopus. It cost $3.66 for a small tin.

"Octopus in Soybean oil, salt added - Product of Thailand – Wild Caught," the package states.

I know the kids would have loved to have opened the tin of octopus and have found recognizable pieces of the octopus –but it wasn’t so.

Dd – “Mmmmm smoky. Very chewy and smoky.”

Ds – “Hint of bacon…chewy…but I actually like it. I really like it but I don’t need more.” Hmmm exercising self-control – or does he really NOT like it.

I thought it was a sweet smoky flavor – overpowering fishy smell which I never like. But it did not taste fishy…actually not much taste but the smoky flavor.

I liked it and ate a few pieces – but later I felt kind of sick and when I would think about having eaten the octopus – it made me feel worse. I'm sure it was all just psychological...there were no lasting effects - psychological or otherwise!

This is a picture of the pieces rinsed off for a better look