Burmese Grape

Baccaurea ramiflora · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

The Burmese grape (Baccaurea ramiflora), also called rambai, mafai, latka or leteku, is a cauliflorous Southeast Asian fruit that hangs in long, grape-like clusters directly from the trunk and older branches. Under a thin, leathery skin lie two to four translucent, whitish arils, each wrapped around a seed and tasting sweet-sour — refreshing eaten fresh and also used in curries, wines and pickles.

Picking a good onedrag

UnderripeOverripe

Yellow and firmFully yellow, firm and cleanly sweet-sour. Its own storage trial found the acidity flat right through, so keeping it will soften the fruit but never sweeten it.Sound, still tart

Skin colourEven dull yellow, matt and leathery, green gone

The squeezeFirm with the faintest give, skin taut and tight

Stalks and clusterStalks firm and green-brown, nothing shed in the bag

Smell at the clusterFaintly sweet-sour, and only right up close

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

44%

Usable yield

44 g of arils in 100 g of fruit · the leathery skin and the flat seeds are the other 55%, and they go in the bin

Keeping ittap a band

Its own trial compared 10, 12, 15 and 25 C and 15 C won outright, so a household fridge sits below everything this fruit was shown to keep in. Cool, not cold.

Preparing