One of my favorite aspects of living down here is living with Maite and Teresa and being so warmly included in their traditional activities.
Teresa works so hard at home - cooking, baking, keeping up her little sewing business, laundry... besides waiting on me hand and foot. I enjoy cooking with her - get to learn a lot about native food!
Yesterday, I peeled a big bowlful of Tumbos to squeeze for juice.
Have any of you ever seen this fruit? It's pretty interesting. Thick, smooth skin that is easily cut, and tons of little hard black seeds surrounded by pouches of juice. As for the taste... I know of nothing in the US to compare it to... very mild, pretty sweet. Maybe like a really un-tangy orange.
Oh, and tonight I ate the best melon ever. Yes, better than "Howell Melons." By a longshot. It tastes like Honey Dew crossed with Watermelon. Except it's white!
I have never seen or heard of Tumbos before! They sound fascinating. I wish I could taste one! What was the name of that awesome melon?
ReplyDeleteThey called it "Melonchina" (Chinese Melon?) It was really cool. Looked more like a decorative squash, and inside, instead of a bunch of seeds, was just this thing like the fibrous inside of a pepper. It was juicy too.
ReplyDeleteI miss the foods and fruits in Cocha. I especially miss how inexpensive they are!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the "Taste" of Bolivia. The tumbos look like it may be related to the papaya? We will have to look for the Chinese Melon and tumbos in markets here. Do you eat the meat and get juice from the seeds of the tumbos?
ReplyDeleteNo, the seeds are really hard. I eat them 'cause it's kinda hard not to, but the juice comes from the little orange "pouches" around each seed. Not at all like papaya.
ReplyDeleteHi Caris, Thanks for the delicious updated! ;) Your description of Tumbos sounds similar to a pomagranate....hard lil' seeds with juice around them (like you said, kinda hard to not eat the seeds, too).
ReplyDeleteA google search turned up a Wikipedia article where it is called "Banana Passionfruit" and they state it is related to the Passion fruit. Interesting....
Better than a Howell melon?!?! (she says rolling her eyes...) How can you write such things? =)
ReplyDeleteLoving the blog Caris! Thanks for sharing!