The Fruit I’ve Never Seen

 The fruit I’ve Never Seen by Robin Beesley

A fruit stand at Mercado 3 de Noviembre

    Hi,  its Robin here.  I’m going to be telling you about the fruit in Ecuador, and that’s a lot! There are so many fruits that I have never seen in Alaska, and a lot of the ones I have seen. The first fruit I saw was after we arrived was a granadia, and to me it looked like frog spawn, but to my mom and my dad it looked delicious. Sam thought it looked like frog spawn too but he really liked. Locke saw it and was brave but he did not like it and once I said it looked like frog spawn, he decided not to eat it again. But I do have to say that it is a good fruit. You crack it open like an egg and the middle tastes sweet and you can eat the seeds.

Granadia

See why we thought it looked like frog spawn?

    I think the next new fruit I saw was a maracuya, which I think in English is passion fruit. It is so yummy. my mom tryed it and she loved it and when my dad tryed it he really liked it. Sam and Locke both like it too. But once Sam and mom bought a big cup of it plain and it was too sour to eat the whole cup. A little bit is good, but really it is better when you add some sugar, like making a juice or batido or adding it to a dessert. But it is sooo yummy!

Whole maracuya

It’s inside looks like frog spawn too!

So sour, but so yummy!

    I do not remember what fruit I saw next, maybe some of the ones I have seen before, like papaya, which is very common here very one eats it. But the papaya’s here are really big, like bigger than pumpkins. I also have eaten lots of bananas. I know you know bananas but these bananas are speshal because there are so many different kinds of bananas. There are bananas of many sizes and colors, like red and purple and really tiny ones. There are also LOTS of plantains which are sort of like bananas. Some plantains are called maduros and you need to wait until they get black because that is when they are sweet, and after that you cook them and they are so good. If you eat the plantain when is is still green it is called a verde (green). Lots of foods here are made from verdes like patacones and tigrillo. When they are green, they taste a lot more like a potato.  With a verde, if you wait very long it will get black and you can use it as a maduro.

Maduro

Verde

Cocked maduros!

    Next I want to talk about three fruits that almost have the same name: guaba, guayaba (guava in English), and guanábana (sour sop in English, I have never heard of this!). Guaba looks like a huge pea pod thing and when you open it up there are little white cottony soft pods around black almond shaped seeds. It tastes mild and sweet and a little cottony. Guayaba is yellow on the outside and pink on the inside and is a little smaller than an apple. It has hard seeds that are not good to eat and tastes really yummy. And guanábana is a but dark green fruit with lots of small dark spikes on it. On the inside, it has lots of soft, sweet white fruit that is around dark smooth seeds. 

Guaba outside

Guaba inside

Close up guaba pod

Guayaba

Guayaba inside

Guanábana, got squished on the way home from the market!

Opened up guanábana, pretty messy!

    Another fruit that I do not think I had seen before is dragon fruit. It can be yellow or pink on the outside and has sharp spikes like a dragon, and inside is white or a little bit gray with tiny seeds just like a strawberry has on the outside. You can eat it off a spoon and it is really yummy. It tastes a little bit like a sweet grape and the seeds are a little crunchy. The yellow ones are better than the pink ones, but the pink ones are prettier.

Pink dragon fruit inside

Dragon fruit 

Dragon fruit inside

    Another fruit I have never seen before coming to Ecuador is the chirimoya. It sort of is like a guanábana, but without the spikes on the outside and a lot smaller. And the fruit part is sweeter. But it is similar with the outside dark green and the inside with white sweet soft fruit around dark smooth seeds that you have to spit out. 

Chirimoya outside

Chirimoya inside

    Another fruit that I’ve seen is called the babaco. It is long and yellow and star shaped on the outside with white on the inside. I’m not sure if I have tasted it, but it sounds like it dose not have so much flavor. I think my dad said that. 

Babaco

    I have seen so many more fruits but I forgot the names of them. One more that I will tell you about is the tomato de árbol (tree tomato). It grows all over and I see it on trees on my way to school. It is not good to eat raw but it is really good for making juice. I am going to show you how to make tomato de árbol juice.

First peel the tomato de árboles 

Next, cut them up into chunks

Next, put in the blender with water (or milk if you want to make a batido) and sugar

Next, blend for a minute

Next, strain the juice to get the seeds out

Pour

And enjoy!

    If you ever wanted a lot of fruit, Ecuador is the place to go.  And don’t worry, there are so many more fruits than I talked about. 

Fruit stand on the street. There are fruit stands everywhere!