LOVE these. I had to Google Image these bad boys because I’m always done with them by the time I reach for the camera.

Anyway, I know I said I’d start “eating healthy” and therefore stop writing about junk food, but since I devoured a whole bag of these last night, I thought they would warrant a blog post. Jackfruit chips are a Vietnamese import that are all over Shanghai, and probably at a Asian supermarket near you. Crunchy yet soft, these sweet snacks beat out boring apple chips any day in awesomeness. I never tend to trust the ingredients lists on Chinese packaging (I don’t know why?), but on all 3 brands of jackfruit chips that I’ve tried, they all just use jackfruit and vegetable oil. So I’m guessing they are just naturally that sweet?

But let’s get to the point. What in the world is jackfruit? I, for one, had never heard of them before plowing through these addictive chips.

Jackfruit grow on trees. They are a freak of nature, growing up to 80 pounds, or 36 inches long (says wiki) - this makes them the largest tree-borne fruit on Earth. They are native to South and Southeast Asia, and jackfruit trees mature in 35-40 years.

“When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.” (what do decayed onions smell like?)

That’s all that I find interesting. To read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit
or here: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jackfruit.html

And they’re the national fruit of Bangladesh.

DEEEEEELICOUS!!!