A common site outside many wats, shops, and school classrooms is a pile of assorted pairs of shoes. In Thailand, the foot is considered to be the lowest part of the body, and shoes are not allowed into people’s homes. When you think about it, it makes sense, since the road is generally spotted with animal droppings, gasoline drippings, and other nasty things.
This photo was taken at Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai. One woman is holding a white lotus flower that she will be using to make merit inside the wat. The large fruit hanging from the tree are "canoon." (The English word for them is jackfruit, but I didn’t know what a jackfruit was before I came to Thailand!)
Several of our visitors have nervously asked if they need to worry about their shoes being stolen while they are inside. The answer is no, because if feet are the lowest part of the body, who would want to wear someone’s dirty shoes? We did have a PC friend whose running shoes were stolen about 6 months ago, but I think that was very abnormal.
A quick food report: today for lunch with our respective co-teachers, Robert ate pad si iew (stir-fried noodles with soy sauce) and I ate chi-choom (noodle soup with spicy red sauce). For dinner Robert ate stir-fried soy meat with basil and I ate stir-fried soy meat with kale, both with sticky rice. Ahh, sticky rice.
4 comments:
At first I assumed the jackfruit had been hung on the tree along with that length of cloth. They are so numerous and hanging right on the trunk rather than from branches as we might expect for a normal fruit. Besides, if people bring lotus flowers to make merit, maybe the bring jackfruit too. Monks gotta eat, right?
So I looked up Jack Fruit and sure enough, that's how they actually grow! Here's a small piece of the description (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit)
"Jackfruit is believed to be indigenous to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India, which later spread to other parts of India, southeast Asia, the East Indies and to the Philippines. It is also planted in central and eastern Africa. It is also popular in Brazil and Surinam. The Jackfruit bears fruit three years after planting and the fruit is the largest edible fruit in commerce."
So what is the largest edible fruit which is not in commerce?
Also, I too had never heard of the Jackfruit until I joined the Peace Corps (the exciting discovery occured while on vacation in East Africa). I've since seen it canned with syrup in stores around here. Not nearly so good.
I keep thinking of things I failed to add. Clearly I'm fascinated by jackfruit. Lest you think I'm a fool, I should note that the one jackfruit I saw was already picked, so I didn't have an opportunity to observe how they grow.
Thanks for all the extra info, Ian! I don't know that we'll go looking for canned jackfruit in the US, because I have to say it's not one of our favorites over here. Plus the whole growing-on-the-tree charm would be missing then...
I too would be interested to know what is the largest edible fruit which is not in commerce. Please let me know if you find out!
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