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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Mamey Sapote

Last weekend, I managed to score a good price for a mamey sapote. This fruit, about the size of a small melon, doesn't look like much from the outside. Heck, I often see it piled up with potatoes, given the appearance. But open it up, and it is a world of a difference from a potato.


One has to be careful about eating this ripe (it turns soft and yielding), as the unripe fruit, like an unripe persimmon, as an astringent sap. The actual fruit is sweet, and a texture reminiscent of a well cooked sweet potato, albeit with some graininess. I believe they make this into a popular ice cream in India, called a chikoo flavor.

5 comments:

  1. Is this the same Mamey as is popular in South American cuisine? It's used there for bastidas, ice creams, etc.

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  2. Yes, I believe that is the same fruit. Mamey licuados are sometimes available in local Mexican restaurants.

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  3. No, the chikoo flavor in question comes from another fruit: the chico sapote (which is often confused with the sapodilla, so the flavor could come from any of the two). It's also a sapote, but then again, there are loads of different kinds of sapotes that don't taste alike: blanco or white sapote, negro or black sapote, yellow or amarillo sapote, lucuma sapote, chupa sapote, sapodilla, chico sapote, mamey sapote (and probably more that I don't know of).
    ;)

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  4. I bought a mamey two days ago. It yielded when i pressed on it so I thought it was ripe and stored it in the fridge. I opened it today and the flesh was pale and the taste wasn't sweet. Can it still ripen if left outside even thought I cut it in half already? Also, what would happen if I eat it unripe other than awful flavor?

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  5. Hi, Gis. I haven't known a cut unripe mamey to ripen. I don't think it'll cause you much harm to eat a little of it, but you won't digest it well.

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