What's My Fruit? - Episode 5

[davidn]

I still haven't quite got over how much more accessible absolutely everywhere seems when you have your own car. I started this little series of entries because actually being able to get to the import supermarket was a special occasion that deserved some recognition, but now we're free to go there whenever we like. But even though our visits are more frequent now, its supply of fruit from other dimensions in space and time has not been exhausted, and this was what I decided to bring back with us last week.

This is the fruit from a Pouteria sapota, Mamey sapote, Abricó, or - as it was labelled in the shop - a Mamey. Its appearance is a bit like a coconut and a bit like a melon - its skin isn't quite hairy, but has a soft fuzz all over it, giving it an uncomfortable warmth that makes it feel like holding a small living creature.

This one isn't nearly as dangerous as some of the other things I've brought back - you can get into it by just piercing and sawing it in half, though the skin can take some punishment. On the inside, it's suddenly an avocado - though an avocado coloured a sort of radioactive orange - and once you've got the single, uncannily shiny seed out of the middle, you can then just spoon out the rest and eat it raw, so it's also one of the least inconvenient fruits I've picked up.

The texture is almost exactly the same as an avocado, but it's slightly wetter and juicier. And its taste is... something I can't really adequately describe, though there are a couple of attempts on that Wikipedia page above. If you dispel any citrus notions you have and forget how the fruit called 'orange' actually tastes, it's a bit like what the colour orange would taste like - I'm not really sure that I can do any better than that. We just tried enough of it to taste, and it has to be said that neither of us really liked it very much, though it wasn't exactly bad - and I still consider this choice an extremely successful one, for having discovered a new fruit that can't accurately be described as just a combination of several previously known ones.

This thing was also living inside, and escaped in a panic when I first halved the fruit - I put it outside. It isn't as leviathan-like as comparing the photos might make it seem - they're not to the same scale and it was less than half an inch long. I can only hope it wasn't one of those foreign species of insects that the customs office are always so worried about, which will upset the balance of the ecosystem in our back garden and cause everything to wither and die within the next few months.

Comments

[kjorteo]

Generally, when I carve into a fruit and what appears to be a mutant earwig escapes from inside, that's my cue not to eat it. But then, what would I know.

[davidn]

I just zapped it with the scalar laser and removed its pieces in strict numerical order.

[kjorteo]

Not bad. C

[shoe--gal.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have eaten it if that had been in there - I'm impressed with your bravery!! We had some broccoli a while ago which had a weird looking fly inside and it got thrown straight out!

[davidn]

"Bravery" and "stupidity", such close-together words, sometimes. I was definitely wary of it, but found no more of them inside, or any damage from that one (we were just having enough of it to taste, rather than actually eating the whole thing - I think it's still festering in the fridge somewhere). When I was younger, I did actually have a caterpillar inside a snow-pea pod while I was eating it - which is why I don't eat those any more.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully its eggs won't survive your stomach!

[kjorteo]

Oh, is that how this whole thing starts.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Not an uncommon method to get things going, although most body-snatchers I've seen of late seem to prefer the "Japanese Tentacle Monster unloading into every available orifice" method.

...

Good lord, I think I just disturbed myself. I dunno whether to be proud or dist--well, okay, little late for that...

[davidn]

I'd just like to say to anybody I work with who might have started reading this journal in the past few months - yes, this is normally pretty much what it's like.

[kjorteo]

 

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, glad to see I'm still performing up to standards then.

[davidn]

It's... fine! Even in normal, pre-packaged and inspected food, it comes as a slightly disturbing thought that the regulations are for ratio of leftover appengades per unit of weight rather than the requirement of "Absolutely no maggots at all" that you might reasonably expect.

(I should mention here that I'm terrified of crawling insects and this thing nearly gave me a heart attack, but as the fruit didn't seem to actually be a sizable burrow of them, I still didn't consider its residence an obstacle to tasting it.)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I find it highly disappointing that the person who wrote that little snippet you linked to missed out on a perfectly good "fries/flies" pun at the end. :[

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

The fruit's flavor is variously described as a combination of pumpkin, sweet potato, and maraschino cherries with the texture of an avocado.

Now I've gotta try it. That is one heck of a combination of flavours.

I should be brave enough (and maybe take my time) to stroll around even the local supermarket to see if I can find any other unusual foods, rather than just hitting the common areas and reaching for the box of Lucky Charms.

[davidn]

If you've eaten Lucky Charms, you're braver than I will ever be!

[eternalsailordianamon (from livejournal.com)]

Aw, it's a little black silverfish.