Philippine Fruits

1. Mangga (Mango) - Philippine National fruit. Favorite by the Filipinos, Americans, Koreans, India and other foreigners. Guimaras mangoes are the sweetest fruit in the world in Guiness Book of Record. Guimaras a sub - province island in Visayas and Zambales in Central Luzon are the best producers of export mangoes. Dinamulag (Carabao Mango) & Piko (thinner than Dimamulag) are delicious and sweet. Good in making mango shakes, juice and dried mango. When it is unripe good to eat with salt, salt with red hot chili (cayenne or labuyo) or soy sauce with chili. Semi-ripe are good taste of sweet and sour, some people add few salt to their satisfaction. Unripe is also used for cooking Sinigang (Philippine Famous Food). Indian mango & apple mango are good specially semi-ripe. Overripe taste like children vitamin syrup. Unripe of any variety are being sold with bagoong (salted blend small shrimps) or bagoong with red hot chili is so tasty and spicy. Rich in vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium. Mangoes has phytochemicals -anticancer & lutien good for eye site. I love mangoes.
2. Langka/Nangka (Jack fruit)- giant delicious fruit. Unripe is used for cooking with old coconut milk (gata). While the ripe is good to eat raw and the aroma made your breath sweet smelling. Some they cook it with sugar and used to make Halo-halo (Philippine Summer Ice Fruit Craze with milk & ube ice cream). Seeds are being boiled and eat while watching TV. Jack fruit complete with essential vitamins and minerals like zinc, copper and selenium. I love jack fruits.
3. Avocado (Alligator pear) - It is so nutritious, high protein & fiber, vitamin E and lots of other vitamins and minerals. It is good to eat with sugar & milk. Add ice to chill for more satisfaction. I love avocados.
4. Sagin (Banana) - there are lots of banana variety in the Philippines. Davao banana the green and yellow long and big are being exported. My Americans, Koreans and foreigner friends loves bananas. Medium sizes yellow & red skin and white inside are tasty, too. The smallest are senorita or baby bananas has thin skin and sweet and little sour. Brown skins bananas are more potassium are just for cooking soup, for desserts or for halo-halo ingredient or ice banana drinks. These are also good for banana cakes and banana bread. Long green and yellow are best for icy banana shakes with milk. Banana compose of vitamin A, B & C. Aside from potassium it has calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, high fiber and folic acid. I love it. Monkeys, horn-bill birds and Alamid (bear cat) loves bananas.
5. Pakwan (Watermelon) - So delicious, round watermelon are red color inside while the oval are yellow orange inside both are sweet and I can finished as much size as basketball. Used as dessert. Lots of vitamin A, vitamin C and minerals. One of the nutritional value is Carotenoids (Lycopene, Phytofluene, Phytoene, Beta-Carotene, Lutein and Neurosporene). I love watermelons.
6. Guyabano (Sour sop) - so delicious with lots of vitamin A, B and C plus essential minerals including Lysine. I love this giant shape like mango with soft spikes. Some research it is anticancer.
7. Lanzones - the sweet and sour fruit rich in vitamin C mostly grown in Camiguin, Southern Luzon and Sulu Province and other parts of South East Asian region. And few in tropical America. The dry skin of the fruit is being burned as mosquito repellent.
8. Rambotan - among the notable exotic fruit in the world. Sweet and a little bit sour. Red round and hairy fruit. Good sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, B1, B2 and minerals.
9. Pinya (Pineapple) - Source of phytochemicals and good for our body protection against radicals cells. Rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin E, minerals, selenium, alphacarotine & betacarotine. Delicious but I don't drink water cos taste bitter, I wait for 15 minutes to drink plain water. Useful also in making Philippine dress.
10. Kalamansi - very good source of vitamin C. Kalamansi juice is good for the body. Babies fed kalamansi juice for their Vitamin C daily requirements against diseases. I love Kalamansi juice. How to make it? 7 Kalamansi fruits, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 glass of cold water. My daily drink in breakfast time. To boost my immune system. Lemonsito are the bigger Kalamansi. Useful in cooking and sauce.
11. Bayabas (Guava) - best source of Vitamin C, A, fiber, B-complex and minerals. Native guava are tasty, overripe are sweet even the clean worm inside are delicious to eat. Guava jam is ideal in bread. My mother made guava jam or jelly. Used cooking sinigang in guava called Bulanglang. Kapampangan delicacy. Super big guava are called Bangkok Guava.
12. Papaya - a green or yellow skin with yellow or red inside. Good source of Vitamin C, fiber, calcium and phosphorus. Useful in making medicine, soap and cosmetics. Unripe are ideal for cooking soap called Tinola
13. Melon - high fiber with vitamin and minerals. good to eat with sugar and ice, some they add milk if desired.
14. Mangosteen - among the exotic fruits. Rich in vitamin C and minerals. So sweet and tasty mostly found in Southern Philippines.
15. Atis (Sugar Apple or Sugar Sop) - high fiber, protein, vitamin C, B-complex, lysine and minerals. Good taste, mostly baseball size or much larger than table-tennis ball.
16. Santol (Wild Mangosteen) - native are sour best for cooking sinigang in santol. Bangkok santol are sour, mild sour & some are sweet. Eats raw with salt or sugar. With bagoong or bagoong with chili hot pepper.
17. Sinigwelas (Spanish Plum) - I like the taste of sweetness and little sour. I harvested with my friends in Mt. Arayat when I was 16 years old.
18. Dalandan, Dalanghita - are sour and sweet. Good to eat saw with salt. Iodized salts is more good and I recommend. More fiber you get if you eat raw rather than as drinking juice with sugar and ice.
19. Dayap - (Philippine Lime or Mexican Lime) - Good in foods' blend and for sweet dessert the Lecheplan. Rich in vitamin C.
20. Duhat - (Black Plum or Java Plum) - high fiber, rich in vitamin C, B-complex and minerals. Black plum jam is ideal in bread.
21. Sampalok (Tamarind) - good source of vitamin C and minerals. When young are slightly tender and green, good to eat with salt, sugar or fish sauce (patis) with chili (cayenne) if desire. Old unripe is good for sinigang tamarind. I love sinigang in tamarind specially in pork or beef. Ripe tamarind are brown in color sweet and sour. Tamarind jam is ideal in bread, too. Loves by the lemurs in jungle by picking the tamarind fruit from the ground and fireflies dancing around at night like a natural Christmas Tree.
22. Kaimito (Star Apple) - High fiber and sweet. Lots of vitamin and minerals. Good with milk, sugar and ice. They are round, smooth skin & shiny light green or violet like stars hit by sunlight in reflection. That's why called it "Star Apple".
23. Balimbing (Star Fruit) - Rich in fiber, minerals and vitamin C. Sweet and sour taste ideal with salt.
24. Makopa (Water Apple) - Bell shape pink when ripe. High in fiber, vitamin C and minerals. Green apple color makopa are rare. But the possesses same taste.
25. Anunas (Custard Apple) - Most people said they are similar to atis or sugar apple in taste and nutrition. A rare fruit and cousin of mangosteen and atis.
26. Chico (Sapodilla) - Sweet and aromatic smell when ripe. High fiber with vitamin A & C plus minerals.
28. Suha (Pomelo) - A large citrus fruit green skin white, pink or red inside. White are more sour while pink mild sour and red are sweeter. Pomelo pink juice with ice is delicious. Rich in vitamin C, minerals and betacarotine.
29. Isip Fruit (Bignay) - Green when young, red when semi ripe and so sour in taste and black when fully ripe and sweet. High in calcium, iron, vitamin C and some minerals. Jam and jelly are great in bread.
30. Chesa (Lucuma) - Some said it is a Philippine apricot. Super source of vitamin A, betacarotine, lutien. Vitamins and minerals from A to Zinc. Super fruit but not good in taste. Most of the people cannot finish the lone fruit just one or two bites only. My mother and I prepared it with sugar, milk and ice. And we enjoyed the fruit and made us young. Similar nutrition of Moringa or Malungay leaves. Super antioxidants fight cancer cells.
31. Mabolo (Velvet Apple) - Good sourse of B-complex vitamins, calcium and iron. Most of the people can finish half or one piece only, cause of the strong aroma of rotten cheese in smell.
32. Mansanitas (Small Green Apple) - Same size of cherry but look like a small green apple. I remembered when I was young at elementary age with my friends gave me some of this tiny apples. Rich in vitamin C.
33. Aratelis (Singapore Cherry or Village Cherry) - Small red round in color when ripe. Taste like cotton candy loves by children during the day and fruit bats during the night. The flowers are love by the butterflies and bees. And the trees grows everywhere carries by the bat and bird through their dung.
34. Kasoy (Cashew) - Bell shape and the seed at the bottom of it. Yellow and pinkish when ripe. Rich in fiber, vitamin C and other minerals. Juicy fruit, sometimes slightly bitter taste. Eats by ducks when being fell. The seeds when being cooked the are delicious cashew nuts.
35. Ebus - A 1.5 cm round green fruit and same as coconut milk inside. How to eat? By being cut using small knife and poke out the hard coconut milk look a like, by using small hard stick (bamboo stick).
36. Ubas (Grapes) - One of the most nutritious fruits and antioxidants. High in vitamins and minerals. Grown in higher and cooler place in the Philippines. Most of the in Bagiuo City, Benguet Province.
37. Strawberries - Are grown mostly in Baguio City. Good source of vitamin C and fiber. Strawberry jam is delicious in bread.
38. Kamachile (Manila Tamarind) - Shape like tamarind and taste good when ripe white and pink in color. Mostly planted on highway and roadside in Philippines provinces like in Pampanga. High fiber and source of vitamins and minerals. I heard some are using in making firecrackers.
39. Mirenda (Passion Fruit) - There are two types of exterior skin of this fruit, in Philippines mostly are light yellow in color while in other parts of the globe are dark purple. I drank passion fruit in Polagui, Albay in my early 20s. Taste good, and rich in vitamin C, minerals and phytochemicals.
40. Marang (Johay Oak) - strong scent like jack fruit, mostly found in South East Asian region.
41. Katmon - Found only in Philippine forest, green color and excellent for sauce and jam. It is used in flavoring fish.
42. Durian - (Known as King of Fruits) - mostly found in Mindanao (Southern Island of Philippines), Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia & South Asia. Bad smell like hell but the taste like heaven especially the candy products and cuisine. The fruit is rich in potassium and vitamin C. Good in making candies. Yellow or red flesh inside of this spiky fruit.
43. Rimas or Kolo (Bread Fruit) - It is related to kalamansi but the appearance related to jack fruit. Boiled with sugar as dessert.
44. Singkamas (Mexican Turnip) - This white turnip veggie-fruit eating with salt or blended bagoong during summertime. Also good as ingredient in some cuisine. Singkamas flowers are rich in Vitamin C. The biggest was found in the Philippines.
45. Buko (Coconut)- It is a fruity nut from palm family, its uses are as delicious fruit drinks, medicine, food supplement, pie, ingredient for food, wine, bread, makapuno, nata de coco, candies, pastries, kaong etc. Kopra is used for making soap and cosmetics. Makapuno coconut is tasty variety and yellowish skin. Leaves are using in making stick broom, food cover, temporary walls, and temporary roof. Coco lumber is good lumber in fast or cheap construction. Shells are good as part of shell crafts and jewelries. Flowers and roots are useful in artwork. My teacher named Mr. L. Arceo consider the coconut as tree of life. And I do believed on his opinion.
46. Durian (King of the Tropical Fruits)- delicious bad smelling fruit. Best in making candies.
47. Dragon Fruit (Dragong Prutas)- in white and red varieties.
48. Bitongol - good for making jam and it is a medicinal tree.
49. Suha / Pomelo - a delicious citrus fruits.
50. Sagada Oranges - sweet and delicious.
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