Friday, March 04, 2011

The 258th good thing about Lagos: Unusual fruits

I've started attending a weekly book group that reads African literature (I should feature that in its own post sometime....) and last week a member brought some fruits that I haven't ever seen for us to try.

This first one is called "awin" in Yoruba.  The English name is "velvet tamarind."  This fruit has a furry seed cover (the velvet part) which you peel off and then you suck the pulp off a hard seed which is inedible.  There can't be many calories in this one and it takes a lot of effort to get each one.  But it was kind of tangy and tasty.


This next fruit is called "agbalumo" here and they weren't aware of any English name for it.  It kind of looks like a plum on the outside, but when it is broken open, there are a lot of largish white seeds with pulp around it.  You take out some seeds and suck the pulp off them.  Again, kind of tasty, but not a lot to them.
Although these were interesting and kind of tasty, I could see why they haven't come under widespread cultivation and distribution.

2 comments:

RB Scott said...

Had a quick look through you blog and enjoyed it thoroughly. I wish Morgan had told me about it earlier as I leave for Abuja Wednesday.

Anonymous said...

The agbalumo is also called a "star apple"