Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: a photo-shoot during which Amanda dissects/murders various fruits for photographic analysis. This process often advances to hours of editing before creating a graphically-pleasing collage.
As any new culture does, moving to the Caribbean has exposed me to new foods. Here are some tropical goodies:
Breadfruit
A food staple throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the breadfruit emerges on flowering trees that can grow up to 85 feet tall. The fruit's name is derived from the texture of the cooked, moderately ripe fruit, which has a potato-like flavor, similar to freshly baked bread. It is high in starch and is traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice. There are tons of ways to prepare breadfruit, whether roasted and sliced as a nice side dish, or made into breadfruit chips (better than potato chips!), or boiled and served as a main dish with scraped coconut and chilies.
Fun fact: When you remove a breadfruit from the tree, you have to set it top-down because there will be a fair amount of sap that needs to drain out first...or else your cutting board and knife will be forever sticky. *eyeroll*
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit
Passion Fruit
The passion fruit is widely grown around the world. It is round to oval in shape and can be either yellow or dark purple - a fact that I did not know. I took photos of a purple-skinned fruit, and the next week, our selection was yellow! There aren't many things that you can bite into for the first time and have your eyes spring wide open causing you to immediately dive in for bite #2. The passion fruit is one of those rare things. I had never tasted one before, and the taste and texture blew my mind. It's like a ball full of candy, really.
Fun fact: Passion fruit is so called because it is one of the many species of Passion Flower, the national flower of Paraguay.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_edulis
Otaheite, Jamaican Apple
First, a little back story. When I studied in Taiwan for 3 months, I discovered that one of my favorite fruits is a Wax Apple or a Bell Fruit - it has two names. Then! I found out that it actually has 3 names, or so I thought. I've not been able to find once since; I pick through every farmer's market I go to - I thought for sure I'd find it at one of the two international markets in Atlanta - nope! Then one day after moving here, I was talking about this fruit with my coworkers, and showed them a picture, and they all exclaimed "Otaheite!" "...Oh, whatawhat?" They all got so excited that they had helped me track down this fruit at long last, and that all along it was actually a Jamaican Apple, or in Jamaica, an apple.
Sadly, I have to report that, though it is yummy, this is not the same as the Wax Apple and Bell Fruit that I had in Taiwan. They look exactly the same, so they have to be relatives! The Otaheite has a very light and fluffy texture inside with crisp, mild apple-like taste. The Wax Apple packs a punch with apple taste, and has a crunchy, airy texture like a pear. *mouth waters and the search continues*
Thanks for reading!
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