Loopy for Fruit

Filed in archive Latin Food on February 28, 2008

You can't be in Mexico and not go nuts with the fruit. There is fruit everywhere. These are some of my personal favorites.

Zapote or zapote negro: I have dreams about this fruit. The skin is green and thin, and the inside is the color of rich dark chocolate. As for texture, its similar to a very ripe mango. And it's deliciously sweet. Try it in juice form; flavored water; as an ice cream flavor; or just grab a spoon, cut it in half and go to town.

Guava (guayaba in Spanish): You may be familiar with processed items with this flavor, but the fresh fruit is so worth trying! It's yellow on the outside, white on the inside (sometimes pinkish), filled with tiny seeds you can eat, and is sweet with just a touch of sour taste to it.

Prickly Pear (tuna in Spanish): No, its not a fish. It's the fruit of a cactus plant that's green inside and out. It's very watery and tastes sort of like a Honeydew melon but with a bunch of little edible seeds.

Dragon Fruit (pitaya in Spanish): This fruit is like an exotic strawberry. Just like the "tuna," it comes from a cactus plant. Outside it's a purplish pinkish color and inside its a deep red. The entire thing is full of tiny seeds and has a pleasant lightly sweet taste.

Guanábana: This one's green on the outside (and kind of prickly actually) and white on the inside with seeds you don't really eat (although they won't hurt you). The pulp has a soft texture and a sweet, but slightly tangy taste. I've seen it called a prickly custard apple in English.

In Mexico, you'll find fruit carts in the street, juice shops, open air markets, and of course, at the grocery store. The non-grocery store options, though, are particularly good because the fruit isn't cut as early, so it tastes sweeter.

In terms of day to day life, fruit is front and center during breakfast, it's a very common snack, and its the most common daily dessert. Mangoes, bananas, apples, papayas, watermelons, cantaloupe, strawberries-I can't stand it!

That's it, I'm going on a fruit hunt.