Salak
Salacca zalacca · Tropical fruit
Top 10 pairings
Salak, or snake fruit, is the fig-shaped fruit of a stemless, spiny Southeast Asian palm (Salacca zalacca). Its reddish-brown skin is patterned in fine, tile-like scales that peel away like a reptile's, revealing ivory garlic-clove-shaped lobes that taste crisp, sweet-tart and astringent at once.
Picking a good onedrag
Tight scales, hard, dry at the stemSoft, weeping, smells fermented
Market freshEveryday bestOut of hand or sliced into rujak. Salak is non-climacteric and never sweetens at home, so taste one first: a sour, astringent fruit stays sour and astringent.
ScalesDull but flat, a few pale scuffs
Heft & shakeFirm all round, the barest give at the tip
Stem endScar dry, browned at the edge
SmellFaint sweet-resin, dry husk