How to Eat: Mangosteen

As we have previously delved into the King of Fruit, now it’s time to introduce the Queen of Fruit: the mangosteen. The mangosteen is a delicious tropical fruit you shouldn’t miss when you travel to South East Asia, and in Indonesia, we call this fruit ‘manggis’. When it’s raw, the skin color is green and when ripe it turns into red to dark purple. The taste is sweet and fresh, with a slight sourness. In addition to being delicious, this ‘Queen of Fruit’ is rich in vitamins C and B-complex and is shown to have beneficial anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-aging properties.

Tips for Eating Mangosteen:

• The secret to knowing how many pieces are inside a fruit is by checking the petals on the bottom of the fruit. If you see five petals, then you will find five pieces inside your fruit. This is why the mangosteen is a symbol of honesty in Javanese culture.
• There are two ways to open the fruit: with your bare hands or with the help of a knife. You can simply press the skin gently with both hands and wait until it cracks, then tear into it! If that doesn’t work, you can use a knife to cut around the middle and twist off half of the shell.
• You can eat it right away by taking the pieces one by one.
• Be careful as inside each segment of flesh you will find a non-edible stone.
• Don’t throw away the skin, as it is rich in xanthone which holds many benefits for our health such as antioxidant properties, cancer prevention, cardiac protection, and is said to reduce inflammation. To gain from these benefits, first you wash the skin and boil it with one litre of water. Let it boil and reduce by half. Afterwards, let it cool down and enjoy as a drink. You can keep it in the fridge and drink it regularly. In addition, the antioxidants found in the skin help our skin stay young and postpone aging.
• As well as eating it fresh, nowadays we can find a variety of foods made from manggis and its skin in Indonesia, such as herbal tea, suplement, herbal juice, herbal syrup, herbal candy, and many more.

[youtube width=”1140″ height=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PBtco6EM2M[/youtube]

  Food, Food Guide, Indonesia, Mangosteen, Thailand