Liberal Arts Blog — Exotic Fruit (Membrillo, Guava, Zapote) — Are You a Fan? One In Particular? How Served?
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Random Stuff Day
Today’s Topic: Exotic Fruit (Membrillo, Guava, Zapote) — are you a fan? One in particular? How served?
After four posts on Australia and one on New Zealand, a switch from the travel theme to food.
This week I learned about “Membrillo” from a new friend from Mexico. I had never heard of it before. Apparently in French it is called “pate de coing.” And in English “Quince cheese.”
I decided to make it the centerpiece in a post that also featured Guava (introduced by a friend in high school whose mother was from Uruguay) and Sapote (or Zapote), also a new addition to my culinary vocabulary.
What is your favorite exotic fruit that the rest of us might delight to learn about?
The premise of this series is that the more you know about the more things others love to eat the greater the potential for a moment of shared joy with anyone you meet.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
MEMBRILLO (Mexico), MARMELADA (Portuguese), PATE DE COING (France), QUINCE CHEESE (England) (dates back to Ancient Rome, mentioned in the cookbook of Apicius)
1. AI: “Membrillo is a sweet, firm, and soft paste or gel made from quinces, a hard fruit that resembles apples, that are cooked with sugar. It’s a national snack in Spain….”
2. A quince is a hard, pear-like fruit that is tart and astringent. The quince tree is also grown as an ornamental plant for its attractive pale pink blossoms.”
3. The biggest producers of quince are Turkey and China.
NB: The word “marmalade” in English is derived from the Portuguese word for quince paste.
GUAVA — also turned into a paste. India is the biggest global producer (45% of the market), dates back to at least 2500 BC in Peru — have you ever tried “Romeu e Julieta”? (second photo below)
1. “Because of its high level of pectin, guavas are extensively used to make candies, preserves, jellies, jams, and marmalades (such as Brazilian goiabada and Colombian and Venezuelan bocadillo), and as a marmalade jam served on toast.”
2. “In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the beverage agua fresca is often made with guava. The entire fruit is a key ingredient in punch, and the juice is often used in culinary sauces (hot or cold), ales, candies, dried snacks, fruit bars, and desserts, or dipped in chamoy. Pulque de guayaba (“guayaba” is Spanish for guava) is a common alcoholic beverage in these regions.”
3. “Goiabada” (below) “a conserve made of red guavas and sugar, commonly foung throught the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world. It dates back to the colonial times of Brazil where guavas were used as a substitute for the quinces used to make quince cheese. It required an abundance of sugar and slave labor for its production as it was made in large batches within cauldrons cooking over a slow fire. In rural areas of Brazil, it is still commonly made at home for family use or sale.”
NB:”In Brazil, goiabada is often eaten with Minas cheese in a dessert known as Romeu e Julieta.It is also popular spread on toast at breakfast.In Portugal it is used as the filling of the popular bolo de rosas (rose cake) in which a layer of pastry is covered with goiabada, then rolled and cut into pieces that resemble roses. This same cake is called rocambole in Brazil, and also uses a layer of pastry covered with goiabada, then rolled and served, as a Swiss roll.
ZAPOTE (or Sapote) many varieties (black, yellow, green), also called “soapapple” in Caribbean english
1. “Sapodilla also called naseberry (manikara zapota) is native to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, and possibly El Salvador.”
2. “Yellow sapote…is native to Mexico and Central America.”
3. Mamey sapote…is from southern Mexico to northern South America.”
NB: “Green sapote is native to lowland southern Mexico.”
Many more varieties: white, black, “south American,” and “sun.” Below a black zapote and pecan tart. Don’t know about you — but looks good to me.
Marcus Gavius Apicius — Wikipedia
Homemade Guava Paste (4 Ingredients) | Salima’s Kitchen
Black Sapote and Pecan Tart — Suwannee Rose
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert?
Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
