Mystery Mini-Mangoes
I have a new favorite fruit. I ate it a few times last year when it was in season and I just bought a bunch today. They look like mini-mangoes, which I guess they are, but you can eat the skin of them. The flesh inside is kind of jelly-like, like a ripe persimmon, and delicious. It has a flattish seed, but thicker (proportionally) than a really flat mango pit. I ate about 8 of them just now, and there's a wee problem. I'm allergic to mango skin (as are a lot of people). I gorged myself on 2 for a dollar Mexican mangoes in Berkeley one time and ended up with a hdeous rash on my face. Had to go on oral steroids and everything. I had scored the flesh and then turned the skin inside out and just eaten the flesh off the inner skin, which amounted to me rubbing (the inside of) the skin all around my mouth. (At least I was better off than the man my doctor told me about who had been using mangoes in sex play!) I was lying down with Violet just now and I realized my face is tingling like crazy...Slathered hydrocortisone on and hopefully I can head it off at the pass. I guess I'll have to try cutting them up and eating them with a spoon. I don't even know what their name is, because my fruit-seller only knows the Chinese name, which I promptly forgot. Anybody know?
jholbo-at-mac-dot-com
They look and sound like a variety of nespole...although yours are a little more elongated than the ones I ate in Italy.
And I never remember what the English word for them is, but the internets are telling me that it's loquat.
But I could be wrong. That shape is startling.
Best of luck with the cortisone...
Posted by: Jane Dark | April 12, 2007 at 08:31 PM
no, they're not loquats. we have those in south carolina (and actually there are tons of loquat trees right on the street in savannah GA; we used to go outat night and pick them since no one else was.) hm, but they are similar. maybe a special kind of loquat? also, the face seems Ok!
Posted by: jholbo | April 12, 2007 at 10:03 PM
that comment above was actually me.
Posted by: belle waring | April 12, 2007 at 10:04 PM
Ah, in the Pacific NW loquats are utterly non-existent, even in Whole Paycheck. I will have to remember that they are plentiful in SC and GA, in case I am ever traveling there.
Glad the face is okay. Allergies are such a pain.
Posted by: Jane Dark | April 13, 2007 at 03:43 AM
Eggfruit?
Posted by: Junior Mint | April 13, 2007 at 06:39 AM
I believe those are plum mangoes, also known as gandarias. The botanic name is Bouea macrophylla. The Thai name is maprang. Here's a picture on another site:
http://toptropicals.com/pics/garden/05/fruit/6316.jpg
Posted by: Uncle Oinky | April 13, 2007 at 07:36 AM
they look like wolfberries to me.
Posted by: dsquared | April 18, 2007 at 01:57 AM