India: Jack Fruit

Have you ever seen a jack fruit?  Those bad boys are huge.  They grow in our family's backyard (and all over India) so one day, Great Grandma got out the knife and hacked one down.  Here are some photos of how she cut it down, how they cut the fruit (along w/ a video), and how it was served.

Amachee tying the hooked knife to a very long stick.  Ajay very interested in what is going on.

Reaching up to cut the jack fruit down.  It made a *thunk* sound as it landed.

See how big that thing is??

The white stuff on the stem is a sticky, glue-like substance secreted by the fruit.

After Great-Amachee cut the main fruit into sections, Amachee and Echachan cut it into bite-sized pieces and took out the many seeds.

Part of the jack fruit was cooked up that day.  The other part was left to ripen a day and we ate it plain.  I tasted it the first day and couldn't believe it was the same fruit the second day.  First day didn't have much flavor, second day was quite tasty!

It may not look very appetizing but this jack-fruit mixture along with a beef-curry (with big chunks of coconut) was DELISH!!