Last weekend, my mum gave us some Buah Keranji.  It has black soft shell skin in oval shape and its diameter is about 3cm.  We seldom eat this fruit.  I remember the last time I had it was more than 15 years ago.  This is the first time SiewPeng tastes this fruit.  Her first reaction was a sour face because she couldn’t accept the feel of the fruit in her mouth.

I have tasted it carefully but I still cannot think of a best way to describe its taste.  It has a very little of sour combined with sweetness.  The taste is something similar to lemon tea, but the feeling in the mouth is totally different.  Its mealiness is strong but when put in mouth, it is a bit sticky.

Its black shell skin is not really hard, but I always press too hard to open it and hurt the fruit inside.  Therefore I have used a pair of scissors to cut its skin.

This is how its fruit looks like.

The edible part is actually the thin layer that covers the seed.  You cannot bite it because the seed is hard, but you can only eat it with your tongue by taking out the thin layer of the edible part from the seed.

After the first bite, it looks like this.

I have eaten a few of them with two seeds in one fruit.  Two seeds shared one layer of fruit covering them.  I discovered it when I found 2 seeds in my mouth, I thought I have bitten the seed into 2 pieces, but when I tried to bite them again, they were really as hard as rocks.  Then I washed them and looked carefully, they were twins actually.  Usually a bigger Buah Keranji has two seeds inside.

Buah Keranji is its Malay name.  Its scientific name is Dialium indium.  It is a local fruit, and there is not much information about it in Wikipedia.  In Iban (a Sarawak native’s dialect), it is called Pun engkeranji.  This fruit is native to West Malaysia and Borneo only.  In Kuching, Malaysia, there is a road in Tabuan Jaya area called Jalan Keranji (Keranji Road).

This is the leftover that I am going to throw into the rubbish bin.

I am not sure how high is the economy value of this fruit, we have never found it in the supermarket / hypermarket, ( May be we seldom go to rural area or wet market).  It can be considered as a rare fruit in the city.  Another reason is that not everyone can accept its taste.  If it can be sold at a good price, I am sure that the supermarket / hypermarket will sell it.

Have you tasted it before and do you like it?