John...won't you be elsewhere in August????? LOL!

in early august there should be, longan, dragon fruit, terrible lychees from china, good jackfruit, mediocre rambutan, and some decent mangosteen. the best period for chinatown fruit is late may to early july where they have insanely delicious lychees from florida, really good mangosteen from thailand, plus all the other fruit listed for august.

Do you know what is usually available in august? I am heading up to NY in early august and was hoping to get to china town to see what was available.

The Annonas are also available in the stalls there on Canal such as Sweetsop and Custard Apple(Reticulata) in and around August...

:)

I wish Jay.

Thanks for the info LL, I am not too worried about lychees. I should be able to get plenty of those down here. Glad to here there will be some Rambutan and mangosteen though. I have never been to china town so it should be an interesting experience.

js- dont expect too much from the rambutan- very bland. I ate them fresh from several different trees in puerto rico and they were no better. mangosteen on the other hand- wow- they r world class. the only problems with the ones from china town is that only about half the fruit in a bag are good- the rest have suffered damage during their shipment from thailand and are no longer good. the good ones r amazing though.

Nice haul there LL, sounds like a wonderful fruit-in.

I will humbly disagree about the rambutan, I thought they were pretty good and could easily eat more now. Mangosteen was definitely better though.

-Ethan

The mangosteens there in NYC"CT" aren't fresh if you are going there to buy them, they are bundled frozen in plastic netted bags and then thawed and put in the stalls... some of the "gourmet" stores might have a few fresh but they are expensive and in the case of the "gourmet" stores Rambutan, dried out and old. Check the stems...

:)

LL, That is something I wanted to ask you, how can you tell the fresh mangosteen from the frozen? I know the ones you buy are fresh, but I do think I remember you mentioning that a lot of places sell frozen.

Check the color of the stems, and for the most part fresh have a vibrant green color while frozen are dingy dark green to black...

:)

tropicaliste- china town used to sell only frozen mangosteen but for the last 3 years, fresh mangosteen can be imported into the US and they now absolutely sell fresh mangosteen in china town. i have spoken to the importers and distributers and am 100% certain they r "fresh". having said that, about half the fruit in a given bag are ruined from gabage.
ethan- come on- we got a box of rambutan and after we ate a handful, no one really touched them. the mangosteen on the other went in a couple of days

I think I have to agree with Gerry here.....Rambutans are OK, but on the bland side when compared to lychee, longan, and pulasan....nevermind mangosteen. Even more of an issue with me is the way the rambutan seed clings to the flesh and almost always gives you a rather unpleasant partial seed encounter in the flesh as you eat it. That being said, they sure do look interesting on the tree and on your plate.

Harry

LL
I'll go again the nexttime that the season is in, I haven't been in a while but I've been since the import restriction from Thailand was lifted and still have only seen the netted pre-frozen bags, I remember the big to-do in the NYT when I lived there about Mangosteens so I'm glad they are easier to come by. The stall on the corner of the taipan bakery usually has the best selection, other stall recommendations?

:)

tropicaliste, i think my fave stall is at the corner of canal and mulberry but im not sure if thats the corner- it could be mott- she has the largest stand of any of the canal st stands. but i always check the other stalls as she is usually a little more expensive than the other stalls- i just walk up canal from center st to where the citibank is- about 300 yards and check the selection and price then i walk back down again and do the buying. maybe you saw the frozen bags out of season. season will begin in a couple of weeks and last thru most of august.