This week seems to be the season for gaton, and everyone we have come across has been determined to make sure we try it. Disclaimer* I have no idea if that is the real name of the fruit, and it is almost certainly not how you would spell it in English (kratong, gauton, kartaun, who knows).
While searching for a very sneaky bunny, I instead came across a Thai wearing a giant floppy hat and work gloves and using a big stick to whack fruit from the trees in the lot behind us. Seeing me, she came over and started chatting away in Thai. Between the fragments of Thai that I can understand and the fact that she was reaching out, fruit in hand, I realized she wanted me to try the freshly picked fruit. I was instructed to cut the fruit into four pieces to eat it, although I am not sure why it had to be four. Then she remembered that two farang live in the house, went back to her bag, and came back with another and handed them both to me over the fence between us. Two fruit for two foreigners. Luckily, I know how to say ‘eat,’ numbers, and ‘thank you’ in Thai, so it was a pretty successful conversation.
In addition to this random exchange, we have been given them at school and at a local restaurant we frequent. Also known as wild mangosteen, gaton have become the hot item at the local markets now that they are in season.
So we tried it. Fuzzy orange-brown on the outside, a soft pale-orange inside, it was reminiscent of the theoretical offspring of peaches and mangosteen, but a bit on the tart side. I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. But it’s not the worst fruit to have force-shared by random Thai strangers in our backyard.
