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Preparing
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Dabai
Canarium odontophyllum · Tropical fruit
40 pairings
Dabai (Canarium odontophyllum), often called the Bornean or Sibu olive, is a seasonal fruit of the Malaysian state of Sarawak that is eaten not raw but softened in warm water and dressed like a savoury dish. Beneath a thin, dark-purple to blue-black skin lies a layer of pale, buttery, oily flesh around a single hard, spindle-shaped stone. The flesh is bland and firm when raw but turns soft, creamy and rich once soaked, tasting faintly of avocado and olive; Sarawakians eat it warm with soy sauce or salt, or fold it into rice, so that the fruit reads as an oily, savoury food rather than a sweet one.
Picking a good onedrag
Blue-black, taut, heavyShrivelled, sticky, stale
Sound but settlingBloom gone, flesh still good, still to be steeped: the same 60 C for 15 minutes, since a quick dip leaves it hard. The thin skin softens with it and is eaten too.Eat soon
SkinDeep purple-black, the bloom rubbed off in handling
Weight and pressHard still, a shade lighter, no soft patch anywhere
Stalk scarLoose from the stalk, the scar dry and pale
SmellFaintly green, a soft buttery note behind it
What to look for, from blue-black, taut, heavy to shrivelled, sticky, stale.
What one gives you
12 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
No chilling threshold has been measured for dabai. One report has 5 C prolonging it under an oil coat, with no day count, so a cold fridge is a gamble rather than a plan.
Airflow
Bagged, not bare
It fails by drying: the skin crinkles as it loses water. The 14 C figure was fruit held in polyethene bags, and an oil coating is the traditional fix for the same loss.