Eating Golden Apple
Day one of our big trip has just passed and I’ve already managed to try a new fruit. I expected to eat a lot of my favourite fruit on this trip, but I didn’t anticipate finding anything, besides breadfruit, that I haven’t tried already.
We half walked, half bussed our way to the nearest town today. I made a b-line for a sidewalk fruit stand the second we got off the bus as I am on a mission to eat my weight in custard apples. The vendor didn’t have any of those, but while perusing the table I spotted something I had never seen before. At first I thought it was a mango, but I had heard that mango season is over. Did you know there are lots and lots of varieties of mango that come in all colours and sizes? No bother to me since I’m allergic.
Good thing I made a double take and realized these were not mangos.
“What are these?”
“Golden apple.” Pointing to apples, “These are your apples.” Pointing to the new fruit, “And these are our apples. They are also called June apple.”
“Oh, I know them by that name. I tried one at home but it was green. Obviously not ripe. I didn’t like it.”
“What do they taste like ripe?”
“Sweet.”
For a dollar she sold us one golden apple (Spondias dulcis), and peeled it so we could eat it right away.
I’d say it tastes sweet and slightly sour, exactly like a cross between a mango and an orange, but less intensely flavoured. The texture was a bit crunchy and got a bit stringy nearer to the pit, a lot like a mango. Thankfully, unlike a mango, my lips did not swell on contact.
Later that day we returned to the same stand and bought another for the returning customer fee of 50 cents.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Known as a June plum in Jamaica. One of favorite fruits. Great stewed.
December 9th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
yum!!!
December 10th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Georgia: Will have to try that when we get to Dominica and have cooking facilities.
Meighan: We had a delicious golden apple drink yesterday. I paid $1 for this one, 50 cents for the next… but then I went to another stand yesterday and the guy was selling an entire bag for $5. Wish i had a juicer.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Also called a pommecythere in Trinidad. The green ones actually taste pretty good with salt, garlic, chadon beni and pepper, called a chow. You can “chow” almost anything from green mango to ripe pineapple.
“Borrowed” this recipe from someone’s blog, hope they don’t mind http://www.simplytrinicooking.com/2009/09/pommecythere-chow.html
December 11th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
love that ‘returning customer’ price … heheh
December 11th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
If think I’ve got it right, then this is what we call Ambade here in Goa (India).
It’s used to make a delicious curry to be eaten with rice. Tempered with green chillies, mustard seeds and curry leaves, the ambade is cooked in coconut milk and a little jaggery is added to complete it. Basically you get a curry that tastes sweet-sour-spicy and you can have it with the fat-grained local rice! yum!
It is also pickled.
Yogita
December 12th, 2009 at 6:30 am
I like all of these different names.
Celiwe: I make green tomato chow. Interesting that you can make a chow with pineapple.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:57 am
In case the reference isn’t obvious to all*, Pommecythere translates as “Cytherean apple. Cythera is the birthplace of Venus, so the connotation is something like “love apple”.
*Except mythology geeks…
December 25th, 2009 at 11:57 am
In case the reference isn’t obvious to all*, Pommecythere translates as “Cytherean apple. Cythera is the birthplace of Venus, so the connotation is something like “love apple”.
*Except mythology geeks…
January 7th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Well that is something different. I’ve never heard of them let alone tasted one. Would love to try one some time!
Thanks for sharing.