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The Philippines has some of the best fruit in the world, there can be no doubt about that! My favorites? I love Rambutan, Mangosteen, and Pomelo. But… surprisingly to many, I also love Durian!
Durian is the king of fruits, and a lot of foreigners also think it is the stinkiest fruit of them all!
What about you? What is your favorite tropical fruit? And, most importantly, do you like Durian? 🙂
You should always try to visit the fruit stand if you are in the Philippines. It seems like you will always find something different, something you have never seen before. Give those new fruits a try too!
You can have some fun by ordering your fruit selections in Bisaya! Talk to the vendor with some of your new Bisaya skills too! It will be fun both for you and the “tindero” (the salesman at the fruit stand), you’ll have a blast! You will! Trust me!
Join us again next time for another Bisaya Buddy lesson here on LiP.
Hi Bob ,,
When I arrived here in the Philippines I thought so to Bob, all that exotic fruit ect ,,
How wrong I was ,,, maybe its because I live in Ozamiz , dont get me wrong, I love the place , but the Woolworths Supermarket Fruit & Veg department in Rockhampton ( Queensland ) has far better quality .
Most the fruit you mentioned is available in QLD .
But I will add the Fish Market is far better .
I guess its because Ozamiz is small , I have the same problem with building supplies .
Perhpas, Russell. We have lived in GenSan and Davao, and the fruits in each place are first class!
Hi Bob,
Hard to beat a first class mango, especially if it is ripen to perfection with just the right combination of sweet and tart. The sour green mangoes are a unique flavor change of pace. As I wrote on before in a previous articles, Filipino bananas and jackfruit are delicious! I like the ones you mentioned, but have not tried durian, yet.
The fruits I wish were in greater supply are apples and strawberries. I know they can be found in supermarkets, but are expensive and the variety and quality don’t seem as good as in the USA.
Peace
Jay
Hi Jay. Mangoes are OK, but not among my favorites.
Strawberries are readily available in Davao, up in the mountains just outside the city (Bukidnon province).
Hi Bob,
Strawberries can’t handle the heat. It is strawberry season in NC from late April to mid-May after that the heat of summer destroys the crop. I had heard of strawberries in Bagiou, but now I know about the ones in Davao. Elevation must bring the temperature down enough. My understanding of Filipino strawberries is they are small and not of the quality we get here; although honestly, I haven’t tried Filipino strawberries so not fair for me to judge. Thanks for the information!
Peace
Jay
The strawberries here are grown in Bukidnon, where the weather is in the 60s and 70s most of the time.
You are right the strawberries are small but very sweet. If you judge quality by the looks.. you are right. If you judge by the flavor, I find the strawberries here to be better. 🙂
Hi Jay –
I can vouch for the size and quality of strawberries grown in Baguio because I have eaten them. The ones my wife and I always buy when in Baguio are the ones sold by sidewalk vendors because of their freshness, having come straight from the farm. In terms of size and quality, they are comparable to those grown in the farms of Salinas Valley and Watsonville, California: big and sweet.
The ones grown at the Driscoll farm in Watsonville are of special significance to me because I picked strawberries there for a living as a teenager. You may find Driscoll strawberries at Harris Teeter and Wegman’s, if you have these supermarkets in Raleigh. These are strawberries of high quality, thus expensive.
I started picking strawberries in Salinas and in Watsonville to help with the family finances beginning on the first summer of our arrival in the Monterey Peninsula when I was just 15.
It was a back-breaking job, though satisfying in a way because I got to eat the fruit on the job while pushing a wheeled cart on my knees along aisles after aisles of luscious strawberries all day, culminating at day’s end when I collected my pay in cash based on how many crates of strawberries I picked the entire day, usually from 6AM to 5PM.
I got paid 50 cents per crate. If I picked fast, I could fill a crate in an hour; two hours when I slowed down because of the heat of the sun.
I can see your brain whirling trying to figure out how much I earned per day. LOL Yep, around $6 per day, sometimes less!
I also picked strawberries when I was a kid. I was 10 years old when I started and did it for a couple years. We would leave to go to the far at about 3:30 AM. It was about an hour away, in Ranier, Oregon. I really enjoyed that. It was my first “real job” even though I had already done many entrepreneurial things even at that age.
Hi John,
Wow! thanks for sharing! My wife is planning on taking our younger son 10 years old to a pick your own farm Hunt’s Strawberry Farm, near Rolesville, NC we go to every year to pick strawberries. My wife makes preserves that we put on the only dish I cook, French Toast. I got to make French Toast and coffee, now so we will be ready to go to 9:30 Mass. Thanks for the information and sharing! You too, Bob.
Peace
Jay