The Monster Fruit Jackfruit

The photo I am showing is a jackfruit tree with its fruit, the jackfruit. It is also called nangka, in the Philippines, it is langka. If you are living in a western country, this tree and its fruit might be unfamiliar to you. Or perhaps you just see it on the tv or on the internet. But in my country, the Philippines, jackfruit are well-known. It is a part of some authentic Filipino dishes as well as desserts. From what I have read in Wikipedia, jackfruit's scientific name is Artocarpus heterophyllus, a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family. The jackfruit weights as much as 35 kilos, yes that heavy. From the outside, it looks like a monster fruit but, in the inside, for the Filipinos, it is a heavenly fruit! When it is raw, my mother cooks jackfruit with coconut milk and fish on it and spices. The ripe jackfruit is an excellent dessert too. It is perfect with the halo-halo, ginataang mais, mais con yelo, or in toron, all of which are Filipino sweets and desserts.
A single jackfruit can yield hundreds of the small fruit lobes, looks like a bulb. Each of which carry a highly nutritious seed. The fruit itself is a good source of Vitamin C, while the seeds are rich in protein, potassium, calcium, and iron. So the next time you will see jackfruit, you might have a second thought to think monsters about this fruit. Jackfruit is versatile, delicious, and when it is ripe, it smells so good! By the way, jackfruit is the National fruit in Bangladesh.