Goddess Of Scrumptiousness

A TRIP THROUGH MY EYES : Home Grown Exotic Edibles

My dear friend Laura (+follow) started this brilliant project where anyone is encouraged to share and post an image accompanied by a story that narrates, reflects or describes something about their hometown/country, local/native culture, customs and traditions or a sentiment that best represents you, where you are or what you see in your part of the world.

She encourages everyone with a camera, who takes their own original photography (food, abstract, landscape, urban, inanimate subjects, etc) and is willing to share a great story.

For my first contribution, and since I am quite known as “the food blog girl” around here, I decided to post the local and exotic fruits of my country, the Philippines. I took this photographs last year when I travelled far south of this country.

As you all can see most local fruits we have here looks a lot different, weird even ugly in their appearances compared to globally known western fruits. And I assure you all that not a fruit in these photos tastes and smells awful, their looks might be ugly but all tastes great specially when they are in season and at the peek of ripeness.

First PhotoSet Clockwise: Dalanghita (or green tangerine) this citrus is much similar to a tangerine, clementine and mandarine orange, and when it is ripe it does not changes its colour into orange but stays green to yellow green. Chico (brown leathery thin skin fruit) is a fruit that is a cross between a soft pear (grainy in texture) and persimmon. Rambutan (red golf ball size furry fruit) tastes like a combination of lychee and red grape. Atis (sugar-apple) I can only compare the taste of it like that of a sweet vanilla-banana custard. Philippine Mangoes I said this before and I’ll continue saying it again… the variety of mangoes cultivated and grown here are undoubtedly the best in the world when it comes to taste, texture, succulence and genuinely sweet pleasant smell. And if anyone argues with me about this, I will always be ready to face any judge to defend our mango’s honour. Papaya, here almost anyone who has a backyard and can accommodate fruit tress and vegetable crops almost always have a papaya tree at the back of their house, I mean I do have a papaya tree planted in a plantbox at the side of my front yard. And the best part is, because papaya trees can be planted anywhere, most are organically grown.

Second PhotoSet Clockwise: Guyabano (Soursop, green fruit with dull thorns all over its skin) When I was a kid, my grandmother always bought this fruit whenever it is in season and what she did was extract the juice and fine pulp of this fruit, add sugar and ice and serve it as juice to me and my brother. This fruit, when ripe is very pleasant tasting with a glorious tang (sourness) and is refreshing as a drink. Lanzones is the light and brown fruit that are clusted in its branches like that of grapes. It is widely cultivated in the southern provinces of the Philippines. This fruit is sectioned like a citrus fruit but the taste is a cross between a lychee and longan. This is actually one of my favourite fruits to have as a snack. Fresh Young Coconuts (Buko), here fresh young coconuts are much more preferred than mature coconuts. The meat of fresh young coconuts are tender, delicate, light and sweet and is either mixed in a fruit salad or scraped into strands and incorporated in its own water/liquid and served as a refreshment. It is actually a common practice here that when a foreigner steps on the soil of most of this country’s provinces, he/she is always welcomed with a whole coconut, capped off on top and with a straw (inserted into the thin exposed flesh) to sip the juice or fresh coconut water inside. Pineapple grown in the south of this country are prized for its insane sweetness and juiciness that international food companies like Dole and Del Monte imports their pineapples from here.

-j.maristela

[To participate in this project, please tag your post/contribution with the tracked tag #a trip through my eyes and /or #Sunday Project. For further information please read this post Sunday Project : A Trip Through My Eyes]

Source: goddessofscrumptiousness