Like many other regions, every July and August is the season of ripe jackfruit in Hue. In Hue gardens, there are usually two types of jackfruit: wet jackfruit and dry jackfruit.

To eat wet jackfruit properly, you have to cut it lengthwise, then gently peel off the core, use chopsticks to pick up each segment and dip it in white salt to eat. The sweetness and slight tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue are the unique characteristics of wet jackfruit. There are more types of dried jackfruit: Coconut jackfruit has thick and crispy segments, turmeric jackfruit is golden yellow, honey jackfruit when bitten into the segment, sweet honey oozes out.

Compared to wet jackfruit, the way to eat dry jackfruit has certain differences. When cutting the skin and removing the pulp, Hue people often use banana leaves or fig leaves to line and wipe off the sap.

In particular, the flesh layer close to the shell is called “jackfruit layer” and is very popular with children. The jackfruit fiber is not thrown away but is stewed with fresh mackerel by mothers or used to make vegetarian dishes: stewed jackfruit fiber, jackfruit fiber sausage. Jackfruit fiber is also carefully dried, and in winter it is stewed with catfish or anchovy.

Most gardeners in Hue grow jackfruit as a self-sufficient food source. In Hue gardens, there are usually two types of jackfruit: wet jackfruit and dry jackfruit. Photo: MC

Jackfruit seeds are also a “preserve food” for Hue people. Fresh jackfruit seeds, after peeling off the outer layer (called “dai mit”) and boiling them with cassava and sweet potatoes, are enough for the whole family to have a breakfast.

The dried jackfruit seeds buried in the winter fire, occasionally popping, fragrant, fatty, salty, are a rich memory of many generations of Hue people.

More elaborately, after boiling, peeling, pounding and roasting the jackfruit seeds with spices, squeeze them into small balls, stuff them into jackfruit segments (just ripe), spread honey on them, tie them with green onions and steam them. This is a Hue-style “royal jackfruit” dish that not everyone has the chance to enjoy.

Hue people also have many ways of eating young jackfruit. Fried young jackfruit. Boiled young jackfruit with soy sauce, shrimp paste or fish sauce or thinly sliced ​​and mixed with sesame or peanuts.

Young jackfruit cooked with shrimp and meat soup cannot lack the leaves of the yard or the leaves of the piper lolot... Planting each jackfruit tree in the garden is often included in the homeowner's calculations about columns, beams, rafters, purlins, panels, cabinets, beds, tables, chairs... so that after a few decades, there will be a spacious wooden house. Beautiful color, high hardness, fine wood grain, low expansion... are the reasons why homeowners prioritize using the wood of this tree.

Not only home gardens, Hue pagoda gardens also grow a lot of jackfruit. In addition to being a self-sufficient food source, jackfruit is also a spiritual tree, a symbol of Buddhism.

Mit is an abbreviation of the Sanskrit word Pāramī (transliterated into Sino-Vietnamese as Ba la mat - 菠 蘿 蜜). Pāramī (Ba la mat) is a concept related to Bodhisattva practice in Buddhism. Depending on the sect, Pāramī or the Paramita of Practice can have 4, 6 or 10 virtues, of which the Practice of Generosity (Dāna Pāramī) is the leading virtue.

The color of the kasava (kasaya) robe is also often compared to the yellow color of the jackfruit core. Wooden gongs used for chanting in temples and other religious instruments such as boards and bell-beaters are also made of jackfruit wood. Jackfruit wood is also the preferred choice for making worship items in temples and private homes.

In Hue, there is also a special pagoda named Ba La Mat. This must be the intentional naming of the founder - Vien Giac Dai Su Nguyen Khoa Luan (1834 - 1900).

In speech, it is easy to come across comparisons of money to jackfruit leaves, solid jackfruit (stupid), wet jackfruit (whiny), round as a jackfruit seed (body shape), firm as a jackfruit seed (personality)... And, it is no coincidence that jackfruit is also the fruit engraved in the Cao Dinh - a bronze tripod placed in the center of The Mieu courtyard, cast by King Minh Mang in 1836.