Along with the (sporadically) warmer temperatures comes a new season of fruits and vegetables at the mercado. I’ve already made it clear what my favorite is. Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of fruits I’ve never seen before. Starting with these dragon egg impostors.

The verdulera explained that these cherimoyas are from Chile, and would be very sweet when ripe. You have to wait until the skin starts to turn brown and has a little bit of give, similar to an avocado. I was excited.

Alas, this was no palta-like experience. The flesh of the fruit is white and soft, with large black seeds that are easy to remove. The verdulera recommended chilling it and eating it with a spoon. Apparently, it’s often compared to a sherbet. Wikipedia claims that people characterize the flavor as a mix of banana, pineapple, papaya, peach and strawberry. What type of highly developed palates these people must have to be able to detect such a mix of flavors, I can only guess. Because to me, it tasted straight up like cheap bubblegum. Perhaps it’s the memory of the fake bubblegum-flavored fluoride treatments of my youth; I just couldn’t really stomach it. But they still look pretty damn cool.

Have you ever tried cherimoya, and if so, are you a fan?