Spirit of Aloha | Features | May/June 2004

The Man Who Grows Everything
Hawai'i's "Johnny Appleseed" has a passion for exotic fruits
By Paul Spencer Sochaczewski

Alfred Russell Wallace, a Victorian-era naturalist who traveled widely in Asia, once noted that the taste of a durian was "worth a voyage to the east."

But F.W. Burbridge, another 19th-century explorer, described durian's flavor as "a combination of corn flour and rotten cheese, nectarines, crushed filberts, a dash of pineapple, a spoonful of old dry sherry, thick cream, apricot pulp and a soupcon of garlic, all reduced to the consistency of a rich custard."

Less poetic contemporary observers liken the durian's complex taste and aroma to that of eating strawberries and cream in a public toilet.

On the other hand, most Southeast Asians recognize durian as an aphrodisiac, which has led to the frequently heard aphorism "when the durians are down, the sarongs are up."

There is no doubt at all that this dense, pineapple-size fruit, covered with cudgellike thorns, incites rich and wonderful controversy everywhere it grows in Southeast Asia, but is America ready for a fruit that generates such contentious passion?

Frank Sekiya, a daring man who has been called "Hawai'i's Johnny Appleseed," thinks so. He discovered the durian on one of his frequent trips to Southeast Asia, and it is now one of the 400 varieties of fruits and ornamentals he grows on his nursery in Waimanalo on the Windward Side of the island of O'ahu.

As part of his personal journey, Sekiya follows the sage advice that one path to happiness is to know what you like to do, and then do it. He studied business administration, worked as a food buyer for a large supermarket chain and finally decided that his destiny lay in getting back to the earth by growing fruits that are exotic even to this unusual corner of America. It's fitting that his fruit-fest is found in Hawai'i, the most Asian-feeling state in the country.

Sekiya's first challenge was to obtain an import license, required because Hawai'i's agricultural officials are notoriously (and justifiably) paranoid about alien plants and animals that they fear will ravage native ecosystems.

Sekiya, 47, proudly shows a visitor some of his star crops:

• Britain's Queen Victoria offered a healthy reward for anyone who could bring her a fresh, dark-skinned, richly succulent mangosteen. Those were the days before airplanes, and no one succeeded.

Sometimes called "the most perfect of fruits," the mangosteen generates a purer form of ecstasy than the durian. Both are often eaten together, since in Southeast Asia their fruiting seasons coincide and the slightly acidic mangosteen cuts the richness of the durian.

A 19th-century American tourist in Java, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, joined the ranks of those who wrote fruity prose after tasting the mangosteen: "The five white segments separate easily, and may be lifted whole with a fork, and they melt on the tongue with a touch of tart and a touch of sweet; one moment a memory of the juiciest, most fragrant apple, at another a remembrance of the smoothest cream ice, and most exquisite and delicately flavored fruit acid known-all the delights of nature's laboratory condensed in that ball of neige parfumee."

• One of Sekiya's newest delicacies is Baccaurea sapida, called the Burmese grape, mafai wan in Thai and yaow in Vietnamese. The fruits, about the size of large marbles, cluster in showy strands; the flesh is white with a purple tinge.

• The keppel fruit, named after Henry Keppel, a 19th-century British sea captain (who also gave his name to Singapore's harbor), is said to make the body's excretions smell like violets. It was mandatory eating for the harems of Indonesian sultans. Keppel, incidentally, criticized philosophers who suggested that work is "the sum total of human happiness." Instead he recommended food as a feel-good route to happiness, especially when nourishment "can be obtained without ceaseless labor, [thereby enabling] the poor man to relax from toil."

• Sapadilla, or salak, is often referred to as Indonesian "snake fruit," because of the pattern and texture of its skin. Its flesh is tart and astringent.

• An unusual, dark-purple mango, found only in one locality near Banjarmaisin, Indonesian Borneo.

• Abiu from the Amazon, a one-pound fruit that tastes like melon and caramel, with the texture of persimmon.

• The edible young leaves and shoots of pak wan, also called tropical asparagus, one of the most nutritious and tastiest of all green, leafy vegetables. It's eaten cooked or raw in its native Thailand, has a pealike flavor and is rich in protein and minerals. A bit of an all-purpose plant, pak wan is relatively resistant to disease and pests and makes an excellent hedge.

• Peanut butter fruit grows on a fast-growing small tree whose fruits have a rich, sweet flesh with a texture somewhat like Skippy's. Could this discovery solve the problem of kids who won't eat their vegetables?

• Marang, a breadfruit relative from the southern Philippines that tastes like vanilla ice cream.

• Mamey sapote, from the West Indies and Central America. The size of a papaya, the fruit's skin resembles a dark cantaloupe. The flesh is the color of dark pumpkin and tastes of chocolate, pumpkin and almond.

• Sawo, the size of a small potato, tastes like a honey-flavored peach or pear.

Sekiya sells saplings and cuttings, and he can advise which fruits can survive frost and drought. All his plants are authorized to be sent to the Mainland.

Considering the exotic nature of his trees, the prices are reasonable. For example, a breadfruit sapling costs from $20 to $100; dwarf Brazilian banana from $20; abiu $30 to $45; jackfruit $35 to $70; rambutan $45 to $60.

Still want that smelly, sensual durian? You can buy a tree from Sekiya for $40 to $100, or put your name on the waiting list and wait for a fruit to fall off one of his trees. It's just $5 per pound for a taste of heaven gone astray.

Frankie's Nursery
41-999 Mahiku Place
Waimanalo, HI 96795
Telephone: 259-8737

Paul SPENCER Sochaczewski learned to appreciate exotic fruits during the 13 years he lived in Southeast Asia.

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