Stewart: Flora

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Naturally, there are fruits and vegetables in the market that we don’t see at home. Here are two fruits that were new to us.

This fruit is called as annona, אנונה in Hebrew. Elsewhere it goes by cherimoya or custard apple. It grows on a tree, Annona cherimola, that is native to Peru and Ecuador but is now cultivated in other parts of the world, including Israel. The fruit is rough and warty on the outside with a skin about the thickness of that on an avocado. The inside is filled with white flesh that is interspersed with large black seeds. The flesh is almost too sweet, with a flavor a bit like mango and strawberry. According to Wikipedia, Mark Twain described the cherimoya as “deliciousness itself.” We are inclined to agree with him.

These shiny yellow fruits are guava. They are much prettier than annona and have a strong unmistakable fragrance that I think is pleasant but that others find overpowering. The odor fills the room (or the refrigerator, or the shouk—if you’re downwind you can smell them several stalls away). That’s the good part. The flavor is insipid—not much taste, just a hint of sweetness. And they have lots of round seeds, each about the size of half a grain of rice and every bit as hard, that get impacted in your teeth. Buy guavas and leave them around the room for the odor if you like. Just don’t bother to eat them.

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