Vietnamese fruit: what to try, and how to buy it at the market

Walk through any market in Việt Nam and the fruit stalls will stop you: hairy red balls, dark purple globes, spiky giants you can smell from three stalls away. Much of it grows in the orchards of the Mekong Delta, most of it is cheap, and almost all of it tastes better here than at home. Here is what you are looking at.

The fruits to try

• Xoài: mango. Ripe, golden and sweet, or hard and green, sliced and dipped in chilli salt.
• Thanh long: dragon fruit. Pink skin with green flaps, and white or red flesh full of tiny black seeds. Mild and refreshing; the red kind is usually sweeter, and stains your fingers.
• Chôm chôm: rambutan. Red and hairy. Split the skin with your thumbnail and pop out the juicy white fruit. Mind the seed.
• Măng cụt: mangosteen. A thick, dark purple rind; press it between your palms until it cracks. Inside are soft white segments, sweet and tangy. They say the little flower on the bottom tells you how many segments are inside. The purple juice stains clothes.
• Sầu riêng: durian. Spiky, heavy, with creamy, custardy flesh and a smell people never forget. Many hotels don’t allow it in rooms, so eat it at the stall, where the seller will open it for you.
• Mít: jackfruit. Huge, and sold as yellow pods already cut out, because cutting one is a sticky job. Sweet and chewy.
• Nhãn: longan. Small and brown, sold in bunches. Peel, pop, spit out the shiny black seed.
• Vải: lychee. A northern fruit with a short season in early summer. Bumpy red skin, perfumed white flesh.
• Bưởi: pomelo. A giant citrus with a thick skin, often sold already peeled. Sweet, a little sour, less juicy than a grapefruit.
• Vú sữa: star apple. The name means “breast milk”, for the sweet white juice inside, and a folk tale says the first tree grew where a mother waited for her son to come home. Cut it in half and eat it with a spoon.
• Mãng cầu: custard apple. Green and knobbly, soft when ripe, with creamy white flesh and lots of black seeds to spit out. In the north it is called na.
• Ổi: guava. Eaten crunchy, sliced and dipped in chilli salt (muối ớt).

When to find them

Seasons vary between the north and the south, and some fruit, like dragon fruit, pomelo and guava, you will find for most of the year. Rambutan, mangosteen and durian are mostly in the hot months. Lychee is the most fleeting: blink in early summer and you miss it. If something is out of season, the stall will usually not have it at all. The easy answer is to ask what is good today: “Hôm nay có gì ngon?”

How to buy

Go to a market, not a supermarket: there is more choice, and sellers will often open or peel fruit for you. Fruit is priced by the kilo, which is a ký in the south and a cân in the north. Ask the price before anything goes on the scale, and watch it being weighed.

Wash anything you eat with the skin on, like guava. Most of the rest you peel.

Drink it

Sinh tố is a fruit smoothie, blended with ice and usually condensed milk. Mango is the safe choice; avocado (sinh tố bơ) is the one that surprises people; durian is for the brave. For something lighter, ask for juice, nước ép, and say “ít đường” for less sugar or “không đường” for none. And on a hot day, nothing beats a fresh coconut (dừa), opened with a machete and handed over with a straw.

Straight from the tree

Much of the fruit in southern markets grows in the Mekong Delta, in orchards along the canals. Walking or cycling through one is the best way to taste it fresh. Our Mekong Delta guide helps you decide between a day trip and a night, and the Cái Răng guide covers the floating market where fruit is traded by the boatload.

Taste the delta with us

Our Floating Market Sunrise leaves Sài Gòn before dawn for Cái Răng floating market: breakfast on a private sampan, then a bicycle ride through the orchards and a home-cooked lunch with a farming family.