Normally, it takes me the longest time before posting. But today, I am so excited that I just have to. No obsessive-compulsive researching, no editing, no carefully-taken picture - and sorry I can’t do much better - the other fruit-lovers at home got to it before I found the camera. I just have to show the fruit treasure of the month - the marang!

My aunt just came back from a workshop in Davao and as soon as she alighted from the van, I detected a sweet-pungent odour often associated with planes coming in from that southern province. I knew she wasn’t bringing any durian otherwise the scent would have been stronger. When I found out it was marang (Artocarpus odoratissimus), I couldn’t wait to have my hands on the fruit.
Read the rest of this entry »

“Come quickly, I have something special for you,” my Auntie Rita beckoned to me early this year. What could she be bringing from the barrio? I was in awe, it was anunas (Annona reticulata) - a sweet, heart-shaped and red-skinned fruit related to the unaba/gunaba (guyabano) and anatis (atis) which can be gleaned from the fruits’ morphology. I spent a reverent moment staring at the fruit not because it was spectacular but because it was the first time I’ve seen one in my life although I kept hearing about it for as long as I can remember.

As a child, I would listen intently to my grandmother and grandaunt when they would refer to it as one of their favourite fruits. My mother, her siblings, their cousins and most older people in our clan had fond memories eating anunas straight from the trees. Frustrated at being deprived of what I thought was such a wonderful fruit, I would often ask how it looked like and how it tasted. They would say it’s pinkish to almost red, the flesh looks like a soursop’s (guyabano in Tagalog, guanabana in Spanish - Annona muricata) but sweet without the sour taste. Oh indeed it was sweet and the flesh was creamy, unlike the fibrous soursop and much less grainy than the atis (sugar/custard apple, sweetsop - Annona squamosa). It is one of the ‘migrant fruits’ which made their way to the country through the Galleon Trade.

Due to its shape, it is called corazón in Spanish and Bullock’s heart in English. It’s interesting to find out that anunas is also known as custard apple. I grew up using the term to refer to atis, which is in turn called sugar apple. The business of naming… here we go again!
Read the rest of this entry »

Comments from the previous post made me realise that eating fruits with plain rice must have been a common practice a generation or two ago. I don’t know many people who still do. In our family it died with my grandmother. This habit is one of the things I did not appreciate her teaching me as a child, palatably speaking. I suppose it’s just like eating ripe mangoes with suman but still… you know! Lola ate fruits, almost any kind – mangoes, guavas, chicos, pineapples, watermelon – with a cup of rice and a little salt or baguc (bagoong). Mind you, this was dessert for her. My brother and I complained to our mother when she came home that Lola would make us eat rice with our fruits. Mom would amusedly tell us to just let Lola know we ate a good amount of rice with our fish or meat and vegetables then have our fruits as we pleased. Apparently, mom was with us on this, so were her siblings. Lola was outnumbered.

Toni mentioned her grandmother ate her fruits with rice too. Joey says similarly, her lola’s fruits were on the plate that they practically mixed with the rice. Over in Kuala Lumpur, I read that Babe’s grandmother taught her to eat durian with hot white plain rice but it was just durian, no other fruit. Now I’d like to hear from you:

1. Does anyone in your family eat their fruits with plain rice?
2. If yes, how long ago was this?
3. From which part of the Philippines /world did this fruit habit come from? (If you can trace it.)

I suspect this is a Filipino, if not a Southeast Asian trait but who knows? If you would ever be so kind, if you are so inclined, would you ask others about this too? This is not a formal survey (obviously, Karen you silly girl!) but the morbidly curious obsessive-compulsive nerd that I am would like to know.

Thank you! Now, would you be so kind? Answers need not be limited by the questions. I would love to hear your stories. It would be a refreshing change from my rambling, no?