January 12, 2013

Mini Tampoi - a wild Sarawak fruit

The sweet mini tampoi is a wild fruit found in Sarawak. It is always
 a blessing from God when you find a tree in the jungle. This weekend during a walkabout in the Miri/Bintulu jungles I found to my delight this beauty of a tree.  Fruiting furiously!!

The fruit is very very sweet and juicy. You cannot ask for more!!

The flesh is red in colour and although the seed is rather big each section is very sweet in mouth. So as I eat slowly, I think it is quite a cross between good rambutan and longan. But the redness of the flesh is really something new to an urbanite like me.

The tree is rather small but a grown man can climb up easily without breaking the branches and pluck small bunches of the fruit off the branches. Like most tropical fruits, the tampoi grows right from the branches, not at the end of twigs like apples or olives.



Its scientific name is Baccaurea macrocarpa and belongs to Phyllanthaceae family. Locals also name it as Larah, Terai, Rambai Hutan, Setei.

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Beautifully red and sweet mini tampoi.  The fruit here is the size of a chicken egg.

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The fruit is easy to open and very very pleasant afternoon can be passed sitting under the tree and eating the them , if you don't mind the mosquitoes.

Photos are from Bean's, Sibu.

7 comments:

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

new to me, But you and I can not get the fruit without climbing?

Ensurai said...

Ann,

I can climb trees. No problem. But I am afraid the branches may be too small. LOLs. I am sure y

Ensurai said...

you can climb if you try

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

get yr son to teach u. My bro joke, can teach boys, not girls, and he was teaching my son with me taking photos.

Ensurai said...

My son can climb trees because he is quite agile. Daughters can climb trees too.

Unknown said...

This is called Kejira or kejirak in Iban.Baccaurea Costulasta.

Tropical fruits said...

Amazing!! never saw this fruits before. where are they?? I want to pick them up.

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