Don't you wish you were at this Philippines fruit market right now?

My former next-door neighbor Tirso is a serious world traveler, a nurturer of plants you wouldn't imagine could thrive in a New York City apartment, and an all-around wonderful person. Originally from the Philippines, Tirso originally came to New York to work for the U.N. But his love for the Philippines still runs deep.

Years ago he sent me a postcard from the Philippines the featured a fruit market. I still remember the bountiful displays of exotic fruit! Tirso sent me new year's wishes from the Philippines, so I thought I'd ask him to send some pictures of some real-life markets to help me forget our blustery, freezing weather for a minute. With the help of his nieces Bea and Inna in Ilocos, in northern Phillipines, he obliged.  

Here are some highlights:


Mangoes:

 "These are the sweetest mangoes in the world!" Tirso writes.

Tirso was always nostalgic about Filipino mangoes. Over the years he shared many mango treats with me - dried mango, mango candy - so I know of his enthusiasm for the fruit. And of course, someone who has lived and traveled as much Tirso has doesn't use superlatives lightly. Trust this guy with your mango selection!

They really have you covered at this market: yellow mangoes, green mangoes, pre-peeled and cut (artistically, too) mangoes for the mango lover on the run.



Pineapples and melons! What's not to love here?

Chicos:

Tirso wrote, "These are tropical fruits called Chicos. They grow in Latin America and Florida, but they're bigger there."

I remembered a fruit that looked just liked these from Vietnam (minus the University of Luzon advertisement, of course). I asked Tirso, "Aren't these  sapote?" Tirso answered that they were indeed, only a smaller variety.

Sapote, or sapodilla, is a tropical fruit that is indigenous to the Americas, but came to the Philippines via Spanish conquest. I sometimes see sapote in the fruit markets in East Harlem and the Bronx that cater to customers from the Caribbean. Sapotes are sweet and relatively caloric, like bananas and other tropical fruits, but - less typically - they have an astringent quality because they are high in tannins.  (Tannins are believed to have anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antibacterial capacities.)  More strikingly, their juice is like latex! After a fruit or two the mucilage will do its trick and you'll have to pry your mouth open.

The final fruit featured looked appealing, but aroused some suspicion when I showed the picture to  my Filipina friend Bea, who also hails from the northern part of the Philippines. "Ha!" she said. "That's imported! We don't have oranges like that in the Philippines." 

I posed the question to Tirso, who listed the citrus fruits native to the Philippines: limes, sour orange; and dalanghita or daladan, sweet tangerine-oranges with green skin.  But not mandarin-oranges. Bea was right. These market oranges were indeed imported from China. 

This got me thinking. The Filipino markets should diversify! Forget nearby China, even if it is the world's biggest apple exporter.  As long as the fruit markets in the Philippines are open to importing produce, how about trading mangoes for some New York State apples? 

Hot Weather Treat: Filipino Avocado Milkshake

Kids exult in knowing more than grown-ups, and it's not unusual for a kid to come out of a science lesson about plants to crow to his or her parents, "Tomato isn't a vegetable; it's a fruit. Eggplants are fruits, not vegetables. Pumpkin is a fruit, too. Nyeh nyeh nyeh."


And yet - pumpkin pie notwithstanding - it seems so wrong. We generally think fruits are part of sweet dishes and vegetables of savory dishes, and that's that.

Or is it?

Think of avocados: Guacamole. Salads. Dusted with salt and black pepper or hot sauce.



Not necessarily waiting for the savory treatment...

But such treatment is not inevitable.

A recent mini-heatwave in New York was the perfect opportunity for my friend Bea, who hails from the Philippines (a country that understands the kind of hot, humid weather that always surprises New Yorkers despite its predictability), to showcase her sweet and refreshing avocado milkshake.

Here are her instructions:


1) Remove the pit and the peel from two - three ripe avocados.

2) Put the avocados and several ice cubes in a blender.

3) Add 8 oz of milk. Back home in the Philippines I would use condensed milk, which we use for everything - coffee and tea, rice, soups - but here I use plain milk and add some sugar to taste, maybe about 3 teaspoons. You could use any kind of dairy milk - whole, skim, 2% - or almond or soy milk. My avocado shakes are only a little sweet, so add more sugar to taste if you like a sweeter milkshake.

4) Turn on the blender and let it run until all the ingredients are nicely mixed and frothy. Pour the mixture into 2 -3 glasses.

5) Enjoy this refreshing treat!