Salak (Salacca zalacca) one of popular Thai fruit described as pear-shaped, with dark brown scaly skin; thick soft and juicy yellow flesh; small seeds. It sweet with a touch of sour flavor. It can be eaten fresh or made into juice, jam and pickle in syrup. It is a good source of vitamins C and B2.
Salak is available in Thailand all year round with April to August as peak period or season

Salak is also known as snake fruit, snakeskin fruit.
Salak, a native fruit from Indonesia and Malaysia but it seems to be very popular in Indonesia. Since it originated from these two "Malay-speaking" countries, the Malay name was adopted.

Salak means "bark", as in bark of the tree, because the tough protective covering and the brown color of the bark looks similar to the skin of this fruit. But it actually looks almost identical to the scales of a snake's skin and hence, the English name of snake fruit or snake skin fruit are commonly used instead. And it belongs to the same family as those palm dates.

Salak is considered as rare once out of South-east Asia because it is not cultivated elsewhere. The size of this fruit varies but it is about the size of a fig and with a pointed tip. It comes with brown scale-liked skin but take note that there is yet another exotic species with the red skin and it is slightly longish in shape.

No knife needed to eat this fruit. Hold the fruit with both hands, break the skin at the small end with your fingers and pull it off around the fruit anticlockwise.The tough, thick-looking skin is deceiving as it peels off quite easily. If you put this fruit in the refrigerator and when you peel it, the skin will break off into small pieces, similar to breaking the shell of a hard-boiled egg.

The inside of this fruit, consists of three lobes, are "off-white to creamy" color, like an over-sized peeled garlic.There is a single, dark brown seed in every lobe but the seeds are not edible.

Depending on the various salak cultivars, some salak taste emi-sweet, dry and crunchy but some are slightly juicy, soft and acidic. Somewhat different and unusual taste from other common fruits, so it needs some acquired taste to like it.