Like Richard and Simon, I too have eaten these for many years here in San Diego. I find nothing special except for its size and marked up price. To me, they seem more like "manila" runts. They taste the same, peel the same, and even age the same, meaning that gelatinous texture and the wrinkle skin. Never tasted maprang but I don't think these are it.

Just like Mike T says Maprang / Gandaria has a distinctly purple seed.  When you open the pit large amounts of the seed are lavender.  I have seen some mango seeds that are slightly purple, but maprang is FAR more purple than any of them.  I don't remember the texture that well (I think they were not terribly fibrous but I last ate it in 2005) they are fussier than the standard mango.

At a mango expo, an agronomist told us that on the Island, their are varieties, the size of a human head ( Which I have seen )

A mango the size of a human head.... that's enough to turn me into a pulp eating zombie.

I saw some huge ones in Taiwan last time I was there.  I know bigger isn't always better (flavor is the most important thing), but a big mango always sets my heart racing.....

I read your post but didn't check the place out at first because I thought they did just mamey and avacado.  I looked at them and see they sell abiu and other things too (the miracle fruit is a bit insanely priced but the abiu seems reasonable).

Thanks for reminding me of it since they seem to have a nice assortment.

I never get why everyone is selling dragonfruit, it seems to have less flavor than any other member of the cactus family...

You will always find odd things in the markets.Sweet tamarind,starfruit and the odd chempadak may not be what you're looking for.There could be some very nice melons and mangoes from everbearing types in the sam ru du style.

I'll be looking in the markets.  My wife and I both enjoy looking at the local produce markets. Even if I find "nothing" (and by that I mean nothing new) I find it enjoyable.

What you listed isn't what I'm looking for.  Starfruit (do you mean caimito or carambola), mango... I'll gladly eat them but I'm looking for something that I haven't seen before.  The advantage of this Burma trip is it isn't a package tour, so we should be able to stop at any place that looks interesting.

I'd think Burma would have some odd Artocarpus species (not jackfruit, breadfruit, or chempedak), I know it has several types of Garcinia (sadly not in season in Dec)....  One big problem is Dec is not a big time for fruits so I don't really know what to look for.  An advantage is that since Burma is poor, relatively undeveloped, and until recently politically isolated from most of the world... they hopefully will have more people growing "odd" traditional stuff.  Unlike places like Indonesia where commodity crops dominate the agricultural scene.

Citrus seeds, and citrus family seeds, are officially banned into whole of USA. So you cannot get them from outside the country, but ok from within inside USA.

I don't think this is entirely true.  I believe the states that commercially grow citrus (CA, FL, TX) ban unscreened citrus material coming from other states (including seeds).

For those of us who don't live in the tropics, subtropics, or areas where interesting fruits are imported....  what recommendations are there for mail order fruit?

I've had good results with www.cherimoya.com but I'd like a wider palate of things to order.  Looking for things like feijoa, monstera,...  Whole Foods was (for a time) selling feijoa, monstera, white sapote,... at prices below standard mail order, but sadly they dropped that line (I think they should have promoted it with free samples, they could have garnered a lot of new customers that way) and so I don't even check them out anymore.

Burma in December won't have rambutan,durian ,few durians,no longkong and only stray jackfruit and mangoes.There will be guavas,pineapples,mandarins,pomelo,sapodillas,sugar apples and a big range of temperate fruits.It is displaced further north than Thailand.The northern and upland areas are rather temperate.
There will be lots of herbs and vegies.I would be mailing seeds back to someone with a seed import permit and the hassles will be minimized.

Hmmm.... not what I'm looking for; anything "odd", or not commonly sold?
Sadly the Garcinias seem to be summer fruits, I imagine if they have rattan fruits they are probably summer ones too.
Any odd Artocarpus available there?

There is something not quite right in discussions about rambutan,pulasan and lychees.Rambutans are very good and sweet but if picked too early,stored too long after picking or summer temps are not high enough the taste is not premium.They certainly are way ahead of lychess like bosworth and it is a matter of personal preference between rambutans and lychees of good types.Rambutans suffer from seed coats clinging to flesh and this character varies between types.Many pulasan types are very nice but they never produce fruit in the same volumes as rambutan and only a couple of types are larger than bigger rambutan types.I prefer good rambutans to pulasans but know many people favor pulasans.The shy bearing nature and duller color make them less attractive commercially.

For me production isn't an "issue" because I don't get any production... I'm just a consumer of all these fruits.  I wish I got production but being in the DC area with no greenhouse I'm lucky if I keep Nephelium alive through the winter.

I've never encountered commercial rambutan anywhere near as large as the pulasan I had in Malaysia.  They were so big I could not get my thumb and forefinger around them.  I've never had that "problem" with rambutan.  I didn't do a side by side flavor comparison, but from my memory the flavor was the same between them, so the easy peel and giant size made pulasan a clear winner (also it had a nice cling free nature, a lot of cling free rambutan have the test break away in my mouth which isn't so pleasant)

I agree that lytchee have a better flavor than rambutan.  Lytchee have some acid, rambutan don't.

The big advantage that rambutan have over lytchee is much better & longer shelf life (maybe because of more fiber less liquid... who knows).  The lytchee that shows up in supermarkets in my area is usually pretty sorry.  The rambutan is almost the same as getting it at the source.

What I don't get is why pulasan doesn't supplant rambutan.  The pulasan I've had has the same flavor as rambutan but it is much easier to peel (you just twist the peel, the name is Malay for "twist" in fact) and much bigger.  Oddly pulasan seems to be in some fruit ghetto.  You can't get it in Bangkok, only in southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore.  I'm sure it is also native to Indonesia but when I talked to one guy there he insisted it would only be in Irian jaya (I think he thought I was talking about something odd like "Fijian longan")

Any tips for odd fruits in Burma in December?

Granted December is the wrong time of year but I doubt I could take a Burmese summer.
 
While I love the standard fruits like mangosteen, durian, longkong, rambutan... I put a premium on finding the odd offbeat relatives (nothing like finding a new species and eating it).

While I don't always find great fruits this way, I really enjoy trying something new.

Any tips for gardens, growers, markets, whatever...

Also has anyone gotten a USDA bulk seed permit?  Is it hard to do?

I'm almost in the same boat as you fruithunter, except mine doesn't even flower.  It looks nice and green but no flowers, I guess I should hit it with K when I put it out in the late spring.  During the winter it is crowded with other plants and doesn't get watered as frequently.

I do ziplocks with moist peatmoss.  For me wet tissues lead to rot and mold.  If you don't have mold rot issues you can use tissues, but raw fibers like peatmoss and coir seem to inhibit mold and rot.