Funny Fruit - Kaqui

On the corner near our house was a small stand under a colorful umbrella. Grabbing the plastic woven bag that my house help usually used to do the market shopping I took a deep breath and announced my departure. Not quite ready to leave my baby with the help I maneuvered the stroller over the pavement that was losing a futile battle with the roots of the ancient trees. The whole bumpy ride my baby gooed and gaaed while I rehearsed the few Spanish words I knew to prepare for my first produce purchases.

The people running the stand were taken by the baby, leaving me time to take in just what they had for sale. Vivid colors mixed with the fresh fruity fragrance wafting from the oversized baskets lent to a euphoric confidence bolstered by the giggles shared by my child and the venders. Over-pointing abounded but was quickly forgiven when I attempted speaking to them with my limited vocabulary being sure to smile real big. I purchased bananas, kiwis, apples, papaya, watermelon and tomatoes. That was all that would fit into the carrier under the stroller. The papaya was the only exotic thing I bought, or so I thought.

I made the proper leaving remarks and trotted home that cloudy morning. I was so proud of myself for this accomplishment. We began washing the fruit and my help made a comment about how much she loved this fruit as she indicated the tomatoes. The argument if the tomato was a fruit or vegetable was not new to me so I thought that I would practice some Spanish and present the opposing view. A comical discussion ensued that my help won only after she took a knife and cut the ‘tomato’ in half. Huh?! It was not a tomato! It was, indeed, my very first funny fruit encounter.

It is called a ‘Kaqui’. It, obviously, looks like a tomato. The taste is sweet with an extremely subtle hint of a cinnamon flavor. It is juicy yet firm. The flat pale seeds are edible while the tough skin is not. We are in kaqui season now. It is fun to eat it and remember my first market shopping experience about six years ago now. Oh, in English kaqui is translated persimmon.

Funny Fruit - Granada

“Look my tongue is purple!” Raimy greeted me at the gate of her friends’ house where they had passed the afternoon. Promptly she went on to explain that they had been sucking on ‘granada’ fruit. The English term for this historic fruit is pomegranate. The boughs of this full bushy tree growing beside their house were decorated with dozens of pinkish colored balls of fruit. There are hundreds of bright red seed pods inside this fruit. You scoop up a bunch and put them in your mouth. Squishing them around the seed pods burst open and you swallow the tart juice then spit out the tiny cream colored ‘pepa’. And your mouth is tinted purple. Pomegranates are common trees to have in your yard here in Cochabamba.

For an interesting history of this word click here: pomegranate etymology

Funny Fruit - Pacai

About 6 or 7 soft, fuzzy, little, white pillows of fruit pods make up the pacai. There is a bit of juice and a big black seed in the middle of each pod. The outside looks like tree bark. The taste is sweet. It is the best straight from the tree and warmed up by the sun.

Funny Fruit - Pomelo

One of my friends from the States came with me to do my Saturday market shopping this weekend. It was interesting seeing familiar things through new eyes. We had fun. And we found a great funny fruit that I thought would be fun to share.

This is a grape fruit! It is huge. The taste was the same as any other grape fruit. It was not as juicy as I expected; but I did get 2 cups (500 ml) of juice squeezed out of it. There was only one seed in the whole thing. I was reminded of the story in the bible when the spies came back from the Promised Land describing the huge fruit that they found. This was probably something like what they saw.

In Bolivia this fruit is called Pomelo.

Funny Fruit - Chirimoya

Chirimoya [chee - dee - moy’ - ah]

It has other names depending on what part of the world you are in: Atemoya, Cherimola, Cherimoya, Custard Apple, Custard Fruit, Sitaphal

Taste: For those that enjoy the fruit they would describe it as sweet, yet mellow with a soft ripe pear feeling, but not so grainy. For those that don’t enjoy it they have described it as mushy with the strong taste of dish detergent or soap bubbles.

Look, size and feel: One of those especially ergonomic fruits it ranges in size from that of a soft ball to four times that size. It is heavy and dense. The bitter green skin bruises and tears easily. The actual fruit that you eat is white and a bit juicy with a few large black seeds throughout.

Just the gals in our house consider it a treat. The guys only like it as a flavor of ice-cream. Even though I just finished eating the one you see in the picture with my daughters, my mouth is watering just typing about this treat. We have a chirimoya tree here at our house, though this one I bought in the market.

Funny Fruits - Tuna

Saturday is market day (as some may already know). I had a particularly fun time “doing shopping”, the literal expression in Spanish for buying stuff.

As I was finishing up I saw a stand where they were selling craft items. Due to my daughter’s recent interest in knitting I first had to learn the trade so that I could coach her along. She got a nice kit for Christmas from my mom complete with a video. So we have been learning together and it has been fun. Well, at this craft stand I saw some pretty green yarn. So I stopped to ask how much it was.

As I was talking with the two little girls who were tending the shop for their mom an old lady came up and tapped my elbow a couple times with her hand that was stretched palm up. She was asking for money. I had seen her (and many others) already that day so I said no. I actually think that it was the third time I had told this woman no. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

She looked up to me, for she was hunched over a walker, and smiled a toothless grin and then patted my jaw as she said, “But such a lovely girl with such lovely blue eyes; you can give me something.” It made me smile.

The shopkeeper noticed that the lady was starting to pester and told her, “Look, her purchase is exactly 20 bolivianos and that is what she s using to pay. There will be no change.” She scurried off with my 20 B* bill.

But the elderly lady looked up to me and winked. She had been paying attention. She then said to me, “Look, they are trying to trick you. Each of those balls of yarn is 7 Bs, and the needles are 5. That is 19. You will have change.” She was indeed correct. And at just that moment the girl came back with my 1 B of change. Again the lady tapped my elbow and winked. I gave her the coin. It still makes me grin to think of her.

Funny Fruit Feature:

This is called “Tuna”. Pronounced like the fish. By the way, to say the fish tuna is Spanish is “atun” [ah toon’]. It gets confusing sometimes. This fruit is harvested from a cactus. It tastes like a mellow papaya. It has way too many seeds all the way through! (See the little dark grey dots.) It takes patience to eat the thing, because you have to spit the seeds out. It is a refreshing fruit.

*To say the letter B is the shortened term in English for the Bolivian currency called Bolivianos. Right now the rate of exchange is 8 Bolivianos to 1 US Dollar.

Funny Fruits - Achachairu

Saturday is market day for us. My expert shopper husband does the supermarket and I do what would be equivalent to a farmers market in the States – but more! I take my shopping bags and walk the two blocks to “La Feria de la América”. This particular group of Saturday venders set up their stands along 4 blocks thus transforming a street that is highly trafficked during the week into a plethora of produce perfect for the pedestrians’ purchasing power. The whole experience is rich!

As I come within meters of my market there is a bunch of eager adolescents with wheelbarrow in hand and toothy grin on face greeting me, “¿Le ayudo?” (Can I help you?) The very first week I went it was hard to choose who to help me. So I let a couple of the girls accompany me. The next week I wised up. My decision would be that the first kid to make it to me I would let help me. So each week they come running; they know that I tip well. This last week Jason helped me; he just happens to be one of our stars students in the Sunday school class at our church. Not too many weeks back he won a great prize for memorizing the books of the Old Testament.

Then the shopping begins. By nature I am not a shopper; so I changed it. I make social calls. I go to the same stands each week. They know me and I know them. They give me great prices and I give them a nice chat. So I walk with my helper following. I pick what I want, tell them how much I want, they weigh it and hand it to the helper, we chat a bit, and I pay and move on. After about a half an hour the wheelbarrow is full of fruits, vegetables, and other odds-and-ends household items. We walk to the end of the market to catch a taxi. The kid helps me load up the taxi with my bags then I give my tip.

It’s really quite fun. I also usually bump into some other shopper that I know and we chat as well. This is the routine: Kisses to say hi before we talk. Start with, “How are you? Good. Good.” Adore the child if they happen to be accompanied by one. Talk. Then kisses to say bye.

I get the usual: apples, grapes, bananas, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, green beans, peppers, etc. for my family. But sometimes I find something that I have never seen before and get it to give it a try. This fruit is called achachairu. It may have different names or spellings in different regions. There is a variety of achachairu. We like ‘em all.