MAYrathon 2.0 Day 24 - Attap Fruit in Syrup

I always feel like some day, I'm going to run out of fruit flavors. Some park ranger is going to knock on my door and inform me that I have, indeed, tried every fruit ever. Then I will go retire in Alaska, knock up some hot Eskimo chicks and call it a life. But today's not that day, for I have - Attap Fruit?

Coming to us from Thailand, this is definitely something I've never heard of before and it's not exactly a fruit, or maybe it is? I don't know - it gets really complicated. Attap fruit in its maturity is called the Nipa Palm, populated in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas. They are a type of palm tree that grow is shallow, muddy waters and can grow to around 30 feet high. The most common use of this plant is not to eat but to make thatching for roofs and buildings, feed its sap to pigs and made into smoking tobacco. Sounds delicious. So how do you eat it? Wikipedia says: "Attap chee (Chinese: 亞答子; pinyin: yà dá zǐ) (chee meaning "seed" in several Chinese dialects) is a name for the immature fruits—sweet, translucent, gelatinous balls used as a dessert ingredient in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore."

Well I better break out the can opener because I'm hankering for some gelatinous balls! The opened can is overflowing with syrup, which I'll have to give a taste to as well. I'm going to try and get a few of these white bally things on my fork for a picture. They're odorless, very translucent and blobby. I'm going in for a taste - it's indescribable really. The syrup is thick, not like a fruit cocktail juicy syrup, but almost like a gel. The taste is very slimy and chewy at the same time. It's a bit like a soggy pear chunk or a very, very unripe mango maybe. I don't know - I can see why this isn't an extremely popular fruit. I'm gonna taste a little of the syrup. Thick. Tasteless. Gross. Sorry starving children, this can is going down the garbage disposal.