***Each month Mockingbird will do a post of a featured item from the Sunrise Market. Located in West Knoxville it is an expansive Asian grocery store full of live fish, duck hearts, produce, and many, many other amazing items.***

The Rambutan:

From Wikipedia:
The rambutan (pronounced /ræmˈbuːtən/, Nephelium lappaceum) is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae, and the fruit of this tree. It is native to Malaysia, Indonesia,Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, although its precise natural distribution is unknown. It is closely related to several other edible tropical fruits including the Lychee, Longan, and Mamoncillo.

I found a video online showing how to peel the hairy fruit. The texture was almost like a gummy candy with a hard center. The flavor was really sweet and delicious. A quick search for recipes came up with savory stuffed Rambutans and a Rambutan-Lychee glaze. They would be delicious in a martini if you wanted something a little sweeter.

Than a beautiful plate that says BACON and a liquor jug that says MOCKINGBIRD? Quite possibly the best gift I’ve ever gotten from my dear, dear friend:

Every Thanksgiving it seems my Dad and I get into an argument about salt and how it tastes. He says salt, is salt, is salt. It all tastes the same. Every year we do a tasted test because I have no less than 6 different kinds of salt at my house right now, and every year he admits that different salt does indeed taste differently. For a while I was obsessing over pink Himalayan but now I’ve discovered Maldon Sea Salt. It’s a British salt and is flaky and salty and wonderful. You can eat the flakes by themselves it is so utterly perfect.

According to the press section on Maldon’s excellent website (http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/):

“Maldon Salt relies on the favourable conditions which have given east coast sea salt its unique flavour for centuries. The pyramid-shaped salt crystals, characteristics of Maldon Salt, are soft and fragile enough to crumble easily between the fingers.

Product quality is excellent, the production process is based on traditional salt-making techniques which date back almost two thousand years, but uses modern technology to ensure the highest levels of quality and consistency.

Since 1973 Tidman’s range of salt products has been marketed by the Maldon Crystal Salt Company. Tidman’s range of bath, table, sea and rock salts is sold alongside Maldon Salt in supermarkets, delicatessens, chemists and health food shops all over the world.

The Maldon Crystal Salt Co. is now in the capable hands of the fourth generation of the Osborne Family, and has occupied the same site on the banks of the River Blackwater since 1882. Recently the Company has expanded into new premises where packaging, distribution and administration takes place, enabling additional salt pans on the original site, increasing productivity.”

You can find Maldon Sea Salt at the Fresh Market for about $4.00. There’s a lot of salt in there.

Angels’ Wings

Equal parts
Ginger apple cider
Laird’s Applejack or bourbon
Heated and served with a twist of lemon

Ginger Apple Cider
Adapted from Imbibe Magazine

4 lbs of apples
1lb ginger
1 bay leaf
1 lemon
Water

For the cider:

Puree 4lbs of apples in a food processor, no need to peel. Let the fruit rest for 30 minutes. In the meantime boil 4 quarts of water with 1 lb of sliced ginger, no need to peel, and a bay leaf. Let seep for at least 24 hours.

Once the apples have rested squeeze the pulp in a cheese cloth over a saucepan. Heat juice to 160 degrees. Once the ginger is ready squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Strain ginger pieces and bay leaf. Combine 4 oz or ½ cup of ginger with 16 oz or 2 cups of apple cider.

For the Angels’ Wings
Warm the cider. Mix with equal parts bourbon. Serve with a twist of lemon.

Traveling to lands afar, buying interesting food items that you still can’t get at home is a hobby of many people I know. Most people eat or share immediately, the rest of us hoard until sometimes it’s gone bad and you don’t even get to enjoy it. My friend still has a bottle of cassis I bought in Paris five years ago. I just used a can of yellow tomatoes purchased at Big Lots close to six years ago. Recently I came across this historical information about hoarding:

“A notable aspect of society (in Ireland) in the Middle and Later Bronze Age was the practice of depositing large hoards of metal objects in the ground…hoards may simply represent private possessions hiding in times of danger and not retrieved…the large number of hoards in wet environments suggests ritual interests perhaps related to a deterioration in climate. It is likely a complex number of economic and social reasons were responsible for the practice of hoarding…”

It somehow made me feel better about that can of tomatoes…