The jackfruit is the enormous (up to 90cm long, weighing 40kg!) fruit of the originally Indian tree, now found in half Asia, Africa and South America. It grows just like its stinking brother the Doerian directly on the trunk, not on branches, but has slightly less dangerous looking tips. The ripe fruit contains the edible segments, which taste a bit like pineapple, banana and mango. It is sweet and the structure is firm and crunchy. Unripe jackfruit is not sweet and is often used as a meat substitute.
The ripe, sweet, yellow segments of jackfruit are processed into desserts, smoothies, custard pudding, milkshake, ice cream, potato chips, etc. The seeds can be eaten cooked or roasted just like chestnuts, they taste like potatoes. You eat unripe, green jackfruit like a vegetable and never raw. For example in cubes in a curry as a substitute for chicken. In that case you eat everything but the skin, not just the segments. You can buy it fresh at (Surinamese) toko's and Asian supermarkets, the green jackfruit is also available in cans. That is for sale in every toko and nowadays also in regular supermarkets.
