So, yesterday I ate a guava for what I think is the first time. I've had guava preserves before, having been told Dr. Blackwelder that guava made the perfect scone sauce* (something about which it turns out we disagreed). But I'd never seen a fresh guava, so far as I can recall. And the place where I found them was unusual: the produce section of the Magnolia Wal-mart. So I got two and brought them home, just to give them a try. And a few days later I split them with my sister and brother-in-law, my mother having declined.
They look like a little lemon, except with smoother skin and maybe about a quarter the size. Inside they have a soft core with (edible but hard) seeds surrounded by firmer yellow flesh. The center reminded me a bit of a yellow fig, while the outer part tasted more like a pear (which it also slightly resembled in taste). It was better if you ate both parts together.
The results: my brother-in-law and I thought it was fine but wdn't go out of our way to find one; my sister didn't care for it much. Still, nice to have given something new a try; you never know when you'll make a real discovery and find something you've been missing out on. It certainly wasn't any stranger than several of the fruits I'd tried in Hawaii.
--John R.
current reading: FREDERICK CATHERWOOD, ARCHt. --a biography of the great travel artist given to me back in 1987 by my friend Taum Santoski, who knew of my longtime interest in Catherwood.
*this was during the same visit in which, before serving him with some of Janice's most excellent scones, we warned him about Parker (The Cat Who Bit People), said "I'd rather be bitten than ignored", and proceeded to show that this was true.
Neat! Guavas are rather hard to come by, and the one's I've seen are usually ripe at all and it takes a week to get a nice pink flesh on the inside. I've never eaten a guava by itself. I had it in punch drinks with the juice or as a kind of garnish in a Filipino sour soup.
ReplyDeleteHi Anne
ReplyDeleteThat would explain it. I was mildly surprised that it was yellow all the way through; from the guava preserves I'd had before, I'd assumed it would have a pinkish interior. So either these were a variant or needed to ripen more -- though they began to get soft and wrinkly before I ate them, thinking they'd go bad if I didn't.
--John R.