There is this…thing…found in central Africa called, in French, a prune.
Being a savvy Francophone, I assumed I was being offered a delicious plum. It’s kind of large and purple. They warned me that there is a pit inside. Besides the seemingly odd habit of serving it fried, there is no good reason not to think it’s some kind of plum.
It is NOT some kind of plum. It has a bitter battery-acid taste. Most foreigners think they are absolutely vile. People in plum eating areas, probably because of some fruit Stockholm Syndrome, liken the taste to olives.
If anyone has any idea what the official name of this horrible thing might be called, I’d love you know. Don’t think you have a handle on your fruits until you move to Africa- there are more fruits out there than you could ever imagine.
Roasting almost any vegetable is going to make it much, much better, IME. We did asparagus last week, and it was truly scrumptious. Something about high temps and caramelization… mmm mmm good!
I don’t remember all the specifics, but I saw a Good Eats episode about brussels sprouts that got me thinking. I remembered two things: 1) cut sprouts in half before cooking, and 2) try stir-frying. I did both of these things and I was amazed! I do like frozen ones too, but the fresh, stir-fried and halved brussels sprouts were out of this world. No bitterness, even slightly sweet, with nice caramelization since the flat parts could make more contact with the pan. Truly awesome.
When I was a kid radishes really pissed me off because they are so pretty but I couldn’t take the heat back then. They looked so yummy I thought they should be sweet.
For me it was the discovery that broccoli stalks are edible. I had thought for the longest time that they served only as support structures for the flowering crowns and as extra weight to increase the sale price at the market. Then I cut one up and tossed the pieces into a broccoli & cheese soup I was making and was pleasantly surprised to find that they are actually preferable to the crowns because they don’t disintegrate during cooking like the florets do.
The first time I encountered a sugar apple, I thought it was a vegetable. It was dark green on the outside and looked like the scaly head of a broccoli stalk. I bit into it and discovered that it was sweet, textured like custard, and very very soft. Yummy!
I have this problem, too. My son loves papaya juice, and every time we get it, it looks just absolutely delicious. But then I smell it. And if I go so far as putting it in my mouth (sometimes I think if I try it one more time, it’ll taste good), it tastes like dirty feet smell.