The jackfruit is the largest fruit on earth, a wonder of nature that resembles a strange, fat animal with reptilian green skin hanging from the trunk and branches of a handsome, leathery-leafed tree. Seeing this native of India's sweltering rain forests growing strong and bountiful in South Florida makes our part of the world feel less tame and more tropical.

Are Floridians ready to embrace this behemoth? My guess is yes, when they learn a few simple lessons about dealing with it in the kitchen.

In Brazil, where the Portuguese planted it in the 1800s, jackfruit is known as jaca, from its Malaysian name, chakka. There, as in India and Southeast Asia, it is highly regarded and consumed with relish.

When unripe, its compact, ivory-colored flesh resembles that of breadfruit, to which it is related. Indians use it in curries and rices, Filipinos simmer it with crabmeat and coconut milk, and cooks in northeastern Brazil use it as a stand-in for fish and seafood in tomato- and coconut milk-sauced dishes called moquecas.

As it ripens, the fruit's interior develops yellow fruitlets or arils, commonly known as bulbs, which enclose large, edible, kidney-shaped seeds. The bulbs are attached to a thick central core like that of guanábana (soursop) and are covered in ivory-colored filaments called rags.

Delicious fresh, the tutti-frutti flavored bulbs are also eaten in sugar syrup, jams, jellies and leathers and are candied, dried and even fried into chips.

People born to jackfruit are not intimidated by the size of the fruit, which can exceed 100 pounds. (In Asian markets, it is sold in large, plastic-wrapped chunks.) Nor are they bothered by the latex it exudes when cut or the strong oniony, sour-cream aroma of some cultivars.

Horticulturalists in Florida, where jackfruit has been grown mostly as an ornamental for more than 100 years, are trying to develop cultivars that are smaller, easier to handle and more attractive to home cooks (see online story).

SEEING, TASTING

I first saw jackfruit trees years ago in South Florida and fell in love with the look of the sculptural fruits, which seemed to belong in a Jurassic jungle. I didn't taste it, however, until an extended visit to Salvador da Bahia in northeastern Brazil, where I rented a house in Santo Antonio, an old neighborhood overlooking All Saints' Bay.

At the labyrinthine Sao Joaquim market, I found mountains of ripening jaca resting on the dirt floor. Long, oval and contorted, they looked like a herd of walruses basking in the sun. I watched other shoppers take the fruit home balanced on their heads, so I followed suit, oblivious to a glob of dried latex on the stem that matted my hair.

As I tried to untangle the mess back at the house, a Brazilian friend took the fruit to the kitchen and prepared it. I was pleasantly surprised by its crunchiness and delicious flavor, a blend of ripe banana, pineapple and cantaloupe with a Juicy Fruit gum sweetness and a subtle but lingering hint of dairy. But I was disappointed to have missed out on the prep work.

RIPE FRUIT

Earlier this month, I got a long-awaited lesson in jackfruit handling from Noris Ledesma, a tropical fruit curator at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's Williams Grove farm. Working with a huge, perfectly ripe, caterpillar-shaped specimen:

•  She cut it open lengthwise into two sections with a large, sharp knife and lifted out the fleshy core running along the center (with some cultivars you need to cut it out with a knife).

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