FUN FRUIT

One of the things I will really miss when we leave Ecuador is the fruit. I just love going to the market and standing in one place and taking it all in.

Nancy is doing a market blog today - check it out at http://www.watsontravels.blogspot.com/

There are so many wonderful fruits we just don't have at home. Some of my favorites - Maracuya, which is passion fruit. I had fresh squeezed Maracuya with my lunch today (60 cents). Another favorite is Naranjilla, literally "little orange." It tastes way better than oranges - somewhat like a cross between orange and tomato and nicely acidic. It is the size of a large cherry tomato and makes an excellent ice cream flavor. Then there is one of my all time favorites - Tomate de Arbol (tree tomato). These are shaped somewhat like a Roma-type tomato, with a pointed end, but are dark reddish maroon and grow on short trees. They are not related to tomatoes but do have a bit of a tomato-orange flavor. Another excellent juice or ice cream flavor!

One of my favorite salad ingredients when I am in Ecuador is called Uvilla (little grape). This fruit looks just like an orange cherry tomato. It grows inside of a papery husk and is also called Cape Gooseberry or Ground Cherry. The fruit is firmer than tomato and the flavor is somewhere between pineapple and tomato. Here is the batch I put into our salad for tonight's dinner.

One thing I love to do when I go to the market is to ask the merchants about fruit I don't know. That's how we came home with the Sapotes below. (Also known as Mamey Sapote and grown in Florida). The woman at the market told me that it was yellow inside and tasted rich. I aksed if they could be eaten raw and she said yes. As they were 3 for $1 I thought it worth a try. We also bought this pineapple from her for 50 cents. It weighed nearly 5 lbs!

Sure enough the Sapote was rich. The inside was so unusual - at first there was a 5 petalled star design but as I cut into it I discovered that each petal design hid a mango-like seed that went nearly the length of the fruit. So, there wasn't a huge yield after peeling and seeding these brown fruits. They had a texture of pumpkin and a slight taste of pumpkin, combined, perhaps with papaya. They were an excellent compliment to the very delicious pineapple.

It just won't be the same going back to apples and grapes.

Good eating!

Audrey