I went to « la Plaine des Palmistes » on the 31st of December and that is where I met him.
There is nothing better than a good palm salad to end the year, we went to the Payet estate in “la plaine des palmistes” to get some palms. Mr Payet greeted us and showed us where he spends most of his time, the area where the palm trees are growing is so big that roughly 4 tons of edible palm hearts are produced each year. He is growing red palms also called barbel palms endemic to Reunion Island, white palms also called princess palms from Mauritius and royal palms. We came to get barbel palms, I like them better than the princess palms because I think they have a more subtle taste. The white palm has a huge advantage over the red palm: it never oxidizes. The red palm is very sensitive to nitrogen in the air; when one wants to make a salad, one will have to hurry to separate the upper part of the palm. If you don't hurry up, the beautiful white pulp composed of water for 80% will start to blacken; it won't change the taste but it will look less nice in your plate. You can see how to extract a palm heart from its peel below. In addition to not oxidizing, the white palm will grow a new sprout when one is cut and it will take 3 month to reach the right size. It takes 3 years for the red palm to reach its maturity and once it is cut a new palm needs to be planted.
We came upon a jackfruit tree as we were about to leave, its fruits look a little bit like the durian but thankfully they don't smell the same at all. Mr Payet went close to a fruit, reached for his machete and cut the tail of the fruit with a swift strike; he then looked at us and said that the fruit was ripe and that we could take it. I thanked him, leaned to grab the fruit and recovered with more difficulty than I would have expected because the fruit weighed around 10kg (it can weigh up to 25kg).
Back to the flat it was time to look inside the belly of the beast. I had to cut inside the fruit to get the pods that are edible. It was my first time opening up such a fruit I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I cut a square in the fruit and started peeling it; I discovered pods glued to a lot of filaments. I reached inside the fruit to grab a pod and check that I will be eating the right part. The pods were firmly fixed at the base of the fruit, one pod broke when I pulled on it. I put one part of the pod after extracting it from the fruit, it was sweet, didn't have a strong taste but was good. For the second attempt I reached for the base of a pod and grabbed it strongly while pulling to get it out and this time I got a nice pod covered with filaments that looked like tagliatelle. I started removing more pods, after a while I could see that I had sticky stuff on my hands. The sap of the jackfruit is extremely sticky and the filaments in the fruit are full of it. I had to clean my hands 5 times to get rid of most of the glue. In Reunion Island the sap is called “colle jacque” it was used to catch birds. To be able to work with the fruit and not be bothered with the sap, you have to cover your hands and knife with oil.
The jackfruit is of of those fruits found in Reunion Island that don't have a lot of taste but are good nonetheless, don't hesitate to try one if you get the opportunity.
Happy New Year 2012.
La suite!
