Greetings from Costa Rica

Do Costa Ricans come to our fruit markets and think, "What the heck is that?"

I wondered about this as I marveled at the variety and novelty of the produce revealed in this photograph taken by my sister at the Mercado Central in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Just one single photo and yet so much to check out.

Up on top: Kiwis, got it. They're probably called "kiwis" in Costa Rica, too. When I traveled around Europe on an Interrail pass after college, "kiwi" was the one constant. If you're "kiwi" in Hungarian, believe me, you're "kiwi" in most languages.

The other easy one, with the center/left position: Mandarina, or mandarin oranges. Even if there's some confusion on the mandarin/orange/clementine front, we're basically on pretty firm ground with the popular citrus fruits.

I also see some pears, cantaloupe and avocado on the top part of the picture, with nary a sign to contradict me.

As we go down the picture things grow a bit more exotic.

In the bottom left corner, we can see the sign for "Pitahaya."  Pitahaya,
more commonly known in the US as dragon fruit, is an outstandingly photogenic fruit so it's a bit of shame to exclude it from this - or any - photo. Still, it's an old friend, with just enough familiarity and strangeness to be the star of our most popular "What the heck is that" blog post.

Another "What the heck is that?" friend, rambutan, is located in the center/bottom of the photograph, and is here called "Mamon Chino," which I learned, thanks to this blog, means "Chinese sucker." I can't wait to incorporate this new insult into my vocabulary! The "sucker" part of the name presumably comes from sucking out the fruit after removing the rambutan's thick, spider-firework peel, although I'm not sure how different that is than eating many other kinds of fruits; the "Chino" comes from rambutan's Asian origins.

Finally, the really exotic. 

Is that a pile of guava on the right side? Does the sign read "Guavahi"? The Spanish word for guava is "guayaba," not "guavahi," which, come to think of it, doesn't seem like a word at all. Come on, fruit vendors in overseas produce markets, take some pity on me and work on that penmanship. In exchange, I'll do a blog post on guava (or its even more mysterious cousin, guavahi) soon.

My heart rate quickened at the sight of the pile of "anona" in the center - they looked just like cherimoya, a luscious tropical fruit that I love. Other tropical fruit with army drab armor include guanabana and many other varieties. Tough skin on the outside, ice cream-like flesh inside. Wise farmers all over the warm world - Central and South America; Northern, Central and Southern Africa; the Middle East; South and Southeastern Asia - grow members of the armored family, whose fruits have inviting names like "sugar apple" and "custard apple." Anonnas, as they are known in English, closely resemble cherimoya but have segmented flesh that hugs the fruit's shiny seeds.

Finally, two kinds of Jocote. According to a description from Tasty Tropical Fruits in Costa Rica, jacote are eaten when unripe (green skin) and fully ripe (red or yellow skin), but the fruit is tart either way: “Initially upon biting into the fruit your tongue is bombarded by an intense wave of sourness which then subsides into a semi-sweet flavor with a chalky texture. The closer to the pit you get, the sweeter the fruit becomes.” If, for some reason, you want to see some Nicaraguan guys hanging out and eating some jocote, check it out here, and marvel at the full range of possibilities You Tube offers. Jocote seems to be the same fruit as siriguela, one of the sour fruits of Brazil's Northeast featured in my friend-of-friend Isabel's slideshow of Brazilian fruit.

Jacote is a fruit which looks like a small deformed golfball and its colors range from green to yellow to red. The fruit can be eaten both when its skin is green and unripe as well as once it has matured and turned red or yellow. Ripe and unripe alike, the fruit maintains a tartness to its flavor. Initially upon biting into the fruit your tongue is bombarded by an intense wave of sourness which then subsides into a semi-sweet flavor with a chalky texture. The closer to the pit you get, the sweeter the fruit becomes. It is also possible to eat the skin of this fruit as well!
- See more at: http://www.schooloftheworld.org/tasty-tropical-fruits-in-costa-rica/#sthash.j3JJvjkp.dpuf

Jacote is a fruit which looks like a small deformed golfball and its colors range from green to yellow to red. The fruit can be eaten both when its skin is green and unripe as well as once it has matured and turned red or yellow. Ripe and unripe alike, the fruit maintains a tartness to its flavor. Initially upon biting into the fruit your tongue is bombarded by an intense wave of sourness which then subsides into a semi-sweet flavor with a chalky texture. The closer to the pit you get, the sweeter the fruit becomes. It is also possible to eat the skin of this fruit as well!
- See more at: http://www.schooloftheworld.org/tasty-tropical-fruits-in-costa-rica/#sthash.j3JJvjkp.dpuf

Jocote isn't just another tart, Vitamin C laden fruit in Costa Rica: a jocote tree served hosting duties in April 1842 for the peace treaty that overturned the government of Barulio Carrillo. The treaty became known as the "Pacto del Jacote."  Take that, cherry tree that George Washington allegedly cut down!

Whew. That was a lot of information in one photo! Of course, plenty of questions remain. I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the prices, thoughtfully included in the photo. At 532.90 Costa Rican colon to $1 US, the price of 2,500 is $4.75, the cost per kilo for ripe jocote, dragon fruit and rambutan. Cheaper still are the unripe jocote at 1,000 colon/kilo. Why so much cheaper if both varieties are tart? A good question. Anonas are less than half the cost (1200/kilo) of the rambutan, etc., which strikes me as an incredible bargain. 

The real question: how soon could I get there?

Yet another reason to go to Brazil: Brazilian fruits

Ah, Brazil. 

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

I've only met one Brazilian I've disliked, a rude guy who swam in the same public pool as I did. Very aggressive and very pompous. Perhaps if I were to go to Brazil, as I've long longed to do, I'd meet some obnoxious Brazilians. As one Carioca said to me, "It's not fair to assume that we're all fun-loving and sensual. [Pause] Well, granted I am, but still, you can't assume everyone is."

But never mind the people. What about the produce? 

Pinha, courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim (Wikipedia)

My sister's wonderful friend Paulo just returned to Brazil for a visit after living in New York for the past 13 years. Naturally I asked him to take a break from family activities, reunions with friends, going to the beach, etc. and send me some pictures of the produce and produce markets.

He deputized his friend Isabel, who is from Maceio, Alagoas State, in Brazil's Northeast Region, an area that also includes cities like Fortaleza, Salvador (known as "Brazil's capital of happiness") and Recife. Paulo spent 10 days in this area - his first time there - and reports that the beaches, people and food are all great. 

Isabel very kindly prepared this slideshow of fruits from the region.

Wow!

Some of the fruit is pretty familiar (even with Portuguese names): coconut (coco), guava (goiaba), mango (manga), watermelon (melancia) and banana (yeah, banana). 

Tamarind (Tamarindo) is extremely popular as an ingredient in savory dishes all over the world, especially Indian and Thai. It's also used in candy, jellies, etc. I've seen tamarind fruit at Mexican vendors in New York - perhaps I can post some pictures when the street vendors return in the springtime. Tamarind has a sweet-tart pulp and glossy seeds. 

I've damned carambola, also known as starfruit, with faint praise. It is juicy and pretty when you cut it up, but to me it's mainly a show-stopping garnish. Maybe I need to acquaint myself with a better class of carambola.

I know of acerola as an ingredient in health food store Vitamin C pills, but not as a fruit. It's the berry of an evergreen bush, very high in Vitamin C and other anti-oxidants, juicy and sour and very popular in Brazil.

Caju sounded like "cashew," so I guessed - correctly - that it was the cashew apple, the fruit that is attached to the seed pod that we like to roast and eat. Apparently in many countries the fruit part, not the nut, is where the action is. How delicious must the cashew apple be to make you forget about the shamelessly-picked-out-of-the-mixed-nut-dish cashew nut?  I'd really like to know! Alas, the cashew apple evidently isn't much of a traveler. 

Jaca is jackfruit, a fruit that I associate with India and China. I've seen canned jackfruit in Chinatown but haven't been tempted to buy it. Some people say jackfruit tastes like bananas. An Indian colleague says her father still misses the jackfruit back home, but the appeal is lost upon her.

Graviola! I recognize you! You're soursop and you're also guanabana, as in "What the heck is that? Guanabana.

Pinha, another armored fruit, is also known as a custard apple. Like the graviola, it is sweet and custardy and delicious. Time to pack your bags for Bahia right now.


I had never heard of pitomba, but it certainly looked familiar. I enjoy longans, a refreshing little shelled fruit from Asia (like my buddy the rambutan). I did some research to find out if the Asian native and Northeastern Brazil native were kissing cousins. Flavors of Brazil, a fascinating blog, confirmed that they are indeed related. 

Longans from Chinatown, NYC  - kissing cousins of pitoma from Brazil?

That pretty much exhausted the familiar and quasi-familiar fruit. Paulo assured me that he hadn't been familiar with all of them either. Apparently some of these Northeastern specialties don't make it out of the Northeast to other parts of Brazil.

Here's what I've since learned: 

According to Flavors of Brazil, Jambo has a scent like roses, hence its alternative names "plum rose" and "rose apple," and is crisp and juicy like an apple.

Mangaba , says the Slow Food Foundation, literally means "good fruit for eating." The fruit is highly perishable, so don't expect it to go dragon fruit style any time soon.

Umbu is a distant cousin of the mango, and though refreshing, is basically never seen outside of, you guessed it, Northeastern Brazil. 

Pitanga is also known as the Surinam Cherry and has a sweet-tart flavor.

Siriguela is another one of those sweet-tart, generally-available-only-in-the- Brazilian-Northeast, fruits. The description on Flavors of Brazil reminded me a bit of a loquat, but I couldn't find confirmation of this theory.

Cajanara is another sour-sweet, aromatic, bright-tasting fruit. I don't know if it's fair to guess that cajanara occupies a lower rung in the national consciousness, but it didn't rate a wikipedia entry, not even in Portuguese. 

And finally, there's cupuacu.  

I had heard Cupuaçu described as "king of the jungle fruits." The fruit is the size of a melon but with a creamy, sweet, aromatic pulp. It's high in anti-oxidants and a member of the cacao (chocolate) family. Why, oh why, has the fruit not been brought to our shores?

As I said, yet another reason to go to Brazil.

If the slideshow and list haven't been exhaustive enough for you, check out this article from Deep Brazil magazine.

Bom apetite!