July 5, 2013

• Fresh fruit in Medellín

  I have posted similar pictures in the past but here’s a new set.

  We were in Exito the other night, where there are signs saying “No photographs”. I decided to risk an international incident and capture images of the tropical fruits that were around me. Most of these are very hard to find in the US. (In case you want to compare prices, there are 1850 pesos to a dollar, and 500 grams is just over a pound.)
  

  This one is funny because in Colombia they call prickly pear higos, a word that means ‘figs’ in the Spanish Bible. Other countries call them tunas or tunos. (Tuna means ‘thorn’ in Colombia. Tuna is atún.) Figs, on the other hand, are called brevas, and you can see them just to the right in the narrow slot. (Ignore the other fruit. I’ll get to it in a minute.)

  

  The yellow fruit below is pitahaya, ‘dragonfruit’ in English, which has purple insides. To the right you can see two types of curuba, the round kind and the cucumber-shaped kind. I remember the round ones from my childhood. They’re a little like passion fruit (maracuyá) but the color and flavor are different.

  

  The mangos in this photo are very small and very sweet. They cost more than regular mangoes. The starfruit is called carambolo in Colombia, carambola in Costa Rica.

  

  Lulos are called naranjilla in Mexico. I don’t know if they have an English name. They make a tangy drink.

  

  When I was a kid, guayabas (guava) almost always had worms unless they were picked very green. Now they sell this big guayaba pera ‘pear guava’ variety that usually has no extra protein.

  

  Blackberries are called moras in Spanish. When I was a kid, they grew everywhere along the roads on brambly bushes. The other fruit is tomate de árbol ‘tree tomato’. They make a juice from it but I hate it.

  

  The little yellow papa criolla potato is wonderful. They fry them whole in carts on the street. A greasy bag of salted fried potatoes… heavenly.

  

  The traditional aguacate ‘avocado’ can grow as big as a person’s head. These are about as big as my fist.

  

  This variety of pineapple they call piña manzana, ‘apple pineapple’. Must be the flavor. The yellow fruit is granadilla, a mild cousin of the passion fruit.

  

  Guanábana (the green thing) has white pulp inside. They usually make it into a juice that can be good but also has undertones of vomit.

  

  I think this melon tastes a lot like cantaloupe, but I can’t remember. I don’t know what the little dried fruit in the bags is. Those are coconuts on the right.
  

  

  Uchuvas are tart berries, very delicious.

  

  And out of nowhere, he throws in a steak! It was delicious. The vegetable salad was horrible. The fries were fine.

  

  The Exito at Unicentro now has a Mimo’s frozen yogurt stand. I thought you should know.

  

  Bye. Working on a freelance translation project that is overdue.
  

   

   

  • 4:30 pm
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