Rambai
kanazo (Burmese), ma fai farang (Thai), tampoi/setambun/rambai (Malay), ranbau (Indonesian), rambi (Philippines)
(Baccaurea sp. — Family Euphorbiaceae)
Rambi is the Malay name for fruits of several trees native to Malaysia and Indonesia. Two or three are cultivated and have sweeter and better fruits than the others.
B. motleyana, the main Malaysian and Indonesian species, is a moderately large evergreen tree, of which the female produces abundant clusters of fruit that hang on long strings. Each fruit is oval, between one and two inches in length, with a thin velvety pale brown skin. When ripe, this skin becomes soft and wrinkled. It can, only then, be distinguished from the duku and langsat fruits.
A soft translucent whitish flesh surrounds a few flat, brown seeds. Cultivated varieties have a sweet, mild flavour and are refreshing when eaten raw. Wild trees produce fruits which are too acidic to be eaten raw, but are better suited to preserves.
B. dulcis has similar, but larger and sweeter, fruits grown in the south of Sumatra, where it is known as “tjoepa”.
B. sapida is cultivated for its fruits in India, and is sometimes known as the Burmese grape. There are many other wild species of the jungle whose fruits are eaten locally in Malaysia and Indonesia.
