Artocarpus champedan is a tropical fruit native to Malaysia. They belong to the Moraceae family and commonly known as Cempedak. The fruit and tree is quite similar to Artocarpus heterophyllus or the Jackfruit. Cempedak has a very strong fragrant smell and the fruit is smaller than the Jackfruit.
However, the fruit have sticky latex when cut and the tools needs to be clean with oil rather than just water. Cempedak's soft yellow fleshy pulps are delicious and the seed can also be eaten raw. Sometimes, the pulps are also dip with rice flour that has been mixed with water and cooked as fried cempedak. Even after cooked, the flesh is still soft and have strong fragrant. They are Malaysian favourite equally to fried bananas.
This is the photo of the Cempedak's tree. As you can see, the fruits are dangling on the branches. Some of the them have dark or light green skin colour. These fruits will automatically falls off the tree when overripe and usually will be covered with plastic or papers to protect from being eaten by animals such as squirrels or birds. These fruits will be plucked before they overripe.
The fruit is in oblong shape and the skin is very similar to Jackfruit. The fruit is not as attractive as an apple or grapes; even the flesh is not nice to see after being cut, but the taste does matter. The white circles are their seeds that has been cut into half. They are smaller than the usual size but the flesh is tender and juicy. These Cempedak was given by an officer of
MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Insitute) and Cempedak is one of the tropical plants that has been planted by MARDI. MARDI is a statutory body that has been mandated to conduct research in agriculture, food and agro-based industries in Malaysia for almost 40 years.
Last but not least, the heavenly shiny yellow pulps that captures and attract our sense of smelling and taste buds. The brown colour on top is the seed and these pulps are ready to be eaten raw or fried.
