Traveling through the night markets in these cheap and exotic neighborhoods of Mexico, you will definitely see heaps of flowers and green fruits. Located in the warm and humid Caribbean, Mexico’s fruits are not only cheap and delicious, but also diverse and full of unheard of exotic varieties. Returning from Mexico, I would introduce several strange fruits in Mexico.
1. Mamey Zapote
According to the encyclopedia, Mamey Zapote is a species under the genus Peachtree in the family Sapotaceae, which is not very helpful. The skin is very rough and covered with dried earth-like scales, which makes it look very dirty.
But once peeled, the style changed abruptly. You can see the bright orange-red and warm, moist flesh, like the color of soft persimmons, but its texture is much more uniform. Even the core is smooth and separate, jut like the core of a lychee, so it is exceptionally easy to eat, and one cannot help but feel that the fruit is really user-friendly.
The flesh of the mamey is very sweet and soft without any sense of fiber, and can be eaten with a spoon like ice cream by digging directly into it. In terms of its taste, in addition to a very conscientious sweetness, it is more like a combination of papaya and soft persimmon, mixed with a hint of pineapple sweet and sour. There is a very obvious floral or pollen fragrance, you will definitely love the taste if you take a bite of it. This is probably why Mexican fruit vendors will always cut a mamey fruit for people to taste: this neutral and friendly taste should be enjoyed by all.
When I met with my local friends, they also recommended a way to eat mamey nuts, which is to make a milkshake with milk. Not only is the mamey fruit itself soft and sticky in texture, but the ample amount of sugar very much brings out the flavor of the milk and gives the milkshake a special flavor similar to yogurt and almond-like nuts. Brazilians sometimes use a lot of sugar and avocado together with the milkshake. These two tastes remain somewhat similar. Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll like it!
2. Guava/Guayaba
Guava is a very pure tropical fruit, with a very typical ripe banana/mango/pineapple aroma on the outside. You’ll smell the fragrance when you pass by in the supermarket. The inner flesh tastes soft and sticky, with pulp and seeds scattered like pomegranates. But actually, it bears little resemblance to the taste of pomegranates.
3. Black Sapote
Black Sapote looks very ugly from the outside. It is not only rough in the skin, but also dark green in its color, which makes it do not look like a ripe and tasty fruit. However, don’t let this ugly appearance fool you....Actually, it’s even uglier in the inside.
The skin of the Black Sapote is very brittle and thin just like the plastic film, while the flesh inside is black mud-like half solid and half liquid. With one bite, you will feel like you have never eaten a fruit like it before. The pulp is fluffy and sticky, and it tastes really sweet like like a ganache made with cream and chocolate. Though it tastes not so much like chocolate as white coffee. It also has a slightly starchy texture. The core has a soft persimmon “tongue”-like seeds, slightly watery and fruity, but is still not very chewy overall. Rather than eating fruit, it is more like eating a soft pudding or holding a packet of chocolate sauce in your hand. And because it is expensive and difficult to transport, this fruit is not easy to find outside of Mexico.
