From The
Asian Reporter, V30, #03 (February 3, 2020), page 8.
Huge, tropical jackfruit catches on as a meat
substitute
By Katie Workman
The Associated Press
If you’ve never heard of jackfruit, keep your eyes open:
You’ll start noticing it everywhere.
Jackfruit is a very large tropical fruit often used as a meat
substitute. It packs some nutritional wallop, and the fact that
you can cook, chunk, or shred it like chicken or pork makes it a
go-to main ingredient in many vegetarian and vegan dishes.
Its flavor is neutral, and it takes to all kinds of
seasonings.
Jackfruit is native to India, and also grows in Southeast
Asia, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. It ranges from
15 pounds to a whopping 70.
For cooking, freshly picked, non-ripe jackfruit generally is
used. Once ripe, jackfruit can be used in sweeter dessert
preparations.
It’s available whole or sliced into more manageable pieces.
Unripe, it’s green and unyielding; as it ripens, it softens,
turns yellow, gets some brown spots, and starts to smell fruity.
It’s also sold canned, sometimes in brine or syrup, and you
can find various types in specialty and Asian food stores and,
increasingly, traditional supermarkets.
Now, with many people looking for plant-based alternatives to
meat, jackfruit’s trajectory is up, up, up.
Robert Schueller, head of marketing at Melissa’s Produce, a
specialty produce company, has noted that upward trend for
several years.
"It was about five years ago that the fruit started to really
take off,’’ he says. "Vegetarians and vegans found out how this
fruit could be used as a ‘meat substitute’ for pulled pork
sandwiches and as a taco meat."
As word spread in the U.S. about jackfruit’s versatility,
Schueller says, Melissa’s went from selling a few cases a week
to thousands of cases a week. Melissa’s also offers plastic
containers of jackfruit pods containing just one or two
servings.
Jackfruit also is popping up on menus across the country, at
vegan and vegetarian restaurants, yes, but also in dishes at
more mainstream establishments. Tomatillo, a Mexican restaurant
in Dobbs Ferry, New York, has a quesadilla and taco made with
jackfruit nestled in alongside other meaty and vegetarian
offerings. In Chicago, Alulu Brewpub serves up Vegan Sicilian
Jackfruit Flatbread on a menu alongside in-house cured pork
belly.
Angela Means, owner of the vegan Jackfruit Café in Los
Angeles, says people are turning to a vegan diet for many
reasons, including environmental, health, and animal-rights
concerns.
"We eat meat because of the texture and the spices. Jackfruit
is a great substitute,’’ Means says. "It’s one of the best
choices for us because we can mimic meat, Jackfruit grows in
abundance, and it has potassium, fiber, magnesium, lots of
nutrients. We put it in tacos, and we make sandwiches, like a
barbecue pulled ‘pork.’"
Jackfruit Café also serves a "fish patty’’ made of jackfruit
combined with seaweed.
"You wouldn’t miss anything — we could give you our taco and
you wouldn’t even know it’s vegan," Means says.
Jackfruit Café tries to educate people in its community about
jackfruit and alternatives to a meat-eating diet, she says,
predicting, "in seven to 10 years, jackfruit will be as popular
as beef." |