VERY DELICIOUS ...WITH CHILE AND LEMON

 Campeche is certainly rich with a variety of fruits.  There are always fresh bananas, at least a couple of kinds of pineapples and various imported fruits at the market.

The interesting thing is seeing the local fruit ‘still on the vine’.  Being a gal from Canuckville I had no idea how some of these grew. 

Take mangoes, they grow on a huge tree.  For some reason I just thought a 15 foot bush instead of a forty foot tree. 

And avocadoes (aguacote in Spanish), it’s a big tree also.  I was like a little child when I saw my first tree, totally fascinated.  Maybe when cultivated they keep them smaller like apple trees, that I am familiar with.  It was nice to see them in more of a natural state.  This one takes up most of the left side of the photo. 

Here are two types of avacadoes but there are many.  Just waiting for the light green one to ripen to try for the first time.  Notice the bottle of Tajin (for us gringos, Taheen). More on that later.

Then there is the unique pomegranate known as granada here.  But whatever you call it don’t eat it with your ‘Sunday go to meeting’ white shirt on.  Those lovely tart, little jewels are wonderful but they’ll stain where they land.

Zapote and mamey are supposed to be cousins.  Zapote looks rather like a peach with the pit exposed in the following photo but doesn’t taste like it.   Mamey is a larger oval fruit and rather fuzzy.  Its orange purplishish flesh around a single pit makes me think of velvet some how.  As in the expression, "velvetty smooth".

In the same photo are plums called ciruelas.  This guy is big on pit and only a thin flesh.  How can you describe a flavour?  Just taste a perfectly ripe one, if you should have the chance.  They are very pleasant.  This photo was in an earlier post but wasn't labled. 

Guayas are a grape sized fruit that has a gold rough skin like a Cox’s orange apple.  Is that a new kind of apple for you?  They were one of my father’s favorites and mine also.  They are hard to come by even in apple country.

Grosella is a small golden yellow fruit that when boiled turns bright red.  Its cooked with sugar and they make a candy out of it.  It looks rather like a tiny pumpkin but grows on a tree.  Our young friend was telling us how good they are.  She tastes one and her face nearly turns inside out as it is so sour.   Maybe I’ll wait a wee bit more for it to ripen before I try this one. 

This is my husband’s favourite, guanabana.  After hearing the name he promptly broke out singing the name to the Muppets “Mana mana” song.  I won’t post a recording of that.  The white flesh of this fruit is amazingly delicious in drinks and shakes.  You may know it as soursop.  It is a definite winner in our books.

This is where Tajin comes in.  It’s a zippy powder combo of chile, salt and lemon. Once our friends have encouraged us to try the wonderful varieties of fruits and veggies then the refrain will be,  “They are very delicious, ...especially with chile and lemon”.  Well don’t knock it 'til you tried it.  We are rather hooked on mango that way.