Posts tagged fruit
Strange Fruit #5: Lulo
2672 days
by Tom Germain
in Strange Fruit
Image by Tom Germain
The lulo (Solanum quitoense) is a tangy fruit used almost exclusively to make juice, which is very popular in Colombia. [YQ4F9XYABHS8]
Strange Fruit #4: Chirimoya
0692 days
by Tom Germain
in Strange Fruit
My favorite! A native fruit which looks like a small guanabana (sour sop). It’s white flesh is abundant and very sweet, with black seeds here and there. Despite how delicious it is, it’s not popular here and rather hard to find in supermarkets or sold at exorbitant prices by street merchants.
Strange Fruit #3: Mangostino
0692 days
by Tom Germain
in Strange Fruit
The mangostino (Garcinia mangostana) didn’t actually originate in Colombia, but it grows well in this tropical climate and can often be bought from street merchants. It’s sweet flesh, composed of uneven white segments, reminds me a bit of the lychee fruit. Despite its name, it bears no botanical relationship to the mango.
Stange Fruit #2: Guama
2719 days
by Tom Germain
in Strange Fruit
Guama (goo-ah-mah) looks like a big ugly curved string bean. Inside its hard but easy to pry open shell, you encounter a bunch of black seeds, each wrapped tight in a spider web like pulp. Not the most appetizing vision, but the spider webs are actually quite sweet! The indigenous people of Colombia’s Vaupés province make a sacred drink out of it called “cachiri”. Guama isn’t a very popular fruit otherwise.
Strange Fruit #1: Pitahaya
0719 days
by Tom Germain
in Strange Fruit
The pitahaya (pronounce like pee-tie-ah-yah) looks much like a yellow grenade, and even acts like a grenade! An intestinal grenade, that is! While its gray-white almost transparent flesh, full of circular black seeds, is quite delicious, most people will spend the next day or two in the posture of Rodin’s Thinker after eating one of these. For this reason, the pitahaya isn’t a popular snack among Colombians, except when their need to “cleanse” themselves.
Recently they began exporting this fruit to the USA. I hope it’s sold there with a warning label!
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