Let me introduce… the most delicious and my favourite fruit on this planet: The Chirimoya. These babies are the closest you will ever get to eating dessert when you’re actually eating fruit. Rather odd looking from the outside, the inside is full of white, heavy, creamy goodness. They taste sweet and juicy. Some say the taste resembles a mixture of peaches, pineapple and strawberries with whipped cream. To me they just taste like chirimoyas. Maybe because I have known this fruit my whole life. Originated in Central America it is grown today in South America, South Asia, Southern California, Portugal and of course Andalusia, Spain. In Almuñécar, the town in south spain where most of my spanish family still lives and where I spent countless holidays throughout my life, chirimoya plantations are a common sight. Together with my Dad I used to stroll through the countryside and eat the ripe chirimoyas that fell off the trees.
Photo by Hgrobe / CC-BY-SA-2.5
Today this amazing fruit is a rare treat for me. You can get them at well-sorted fruit shops (in Germany often turkish or greek fruit shops), but then they are not the huuuuge bad boys you can get in Andalusia. They are smaller, but still delicious. The ones you see on the picture above are actually straight out of Almuñécar. My Dad brought them back a couple of days ago.
If you ever see them and want to try them, which I highly recommend, there’s only a few things you need to look out for. Pay attention to the scale pattern on the skin. The bigger the individual scales are, the less stones the fruit will have inside. When you buy them, they will usually be green and really hard. Store them at a cool place (not the fridge though!) and keep them in a plastic bag, or else the skin will dry out too much. In about 2-3 days they will ripen. The skin will get brown stains and when it gives in to pressure they will be ready to eat. Just slice them open, remove the bit in the middle where the fruit was attached to the tree, grab a spoon and enjoy!
