The mangosteen

We finally got around to testing a fruit called a mangosteen, manggis in Bahasa Indonesian. This is the fruit fresh from it's thorough washing ( see previous posts). On the right, we've broken off the stem and leaves. In the lower photo you can see a flower type pattern. The number of flower "petals" tells you how many sections are in the manggis. I still can't figure out why you'd want to know, except I was told you need to buy the ones with the most "petals."

A quick look on the Internet located a video on how to eat one of these. The method I chose to use was to press both hands against the sides of the manggis and it just pops open a little.  Then you finish opening it to reveal the inside. You can press juice out of the red outer covering  but the fruity part is the white garlic clove shaped items. The smaller ones are pit free while the larger ones do contain a pit. The pit adheres to the fruity flesh with an aggressive attitude making it hard to remove the pit. So what does it taste like? Sweet with a hint of sour, but not very intense.  Maybe the juice is more intensely flavored, but with only 2 manggis we didn't try to extract juice. I'll buy some at the market and give it a try.