Once while in the supermarket with my Bronxa Rican then-girlfriend I decided to be adventurous and put a papaya in the cart. “You like papaya?” she asked me, her big dark brown eyes full of doubt, grabbing a bag & filling it with limes. “I’ve never had it before” I replied. She prepared it in a salad with mango, pineapple and cantaloupe and lots of lime juice. I politely ate it but didn’t enjoy it. I found that by holding my breath I wouldn’t smell the dirty diaper and could enjoy the sweetness and comparitive firmness of the other fruits and the sour of the lime.
We never bought another papaya after that.
Now I can always tell when they have papaya in the groery store because the produce section smells like dirty diapers.
The name derives from the vaguely papaya-based fruit juice drink you can get with your 'dog, but there’s a half dozen other options as well. Fresh pineapple juice, or pina colada juice, are the best IMHO.
Same here. I never really had papaya until I vacationed in Mexico, and I distinctly noted the vomit taste and smell. I still loved it, though, like “wow, this is delicious…too bad someone barfed on it.”
I got some the other day that tasted strongly like maple syrup. Papaya, vomit, and maple syrup. Weirdly enough, the maple syrup taste grossed me out more than the vomit taste.
As someone mentioned above, papaya really disappoints me. It comes in glorious tropical fruit salads, and it just isn’t very good at all. I had some local ones in Costa Rica, and just didn’t even eat it after a few tries.
OTOH, local pineapple is glorious. Sweeter than you can imagine it could be.
[Sheesh…finally a topic I have a solid response for, and it’s warped into a friggin’ corprororophagia discussion…]
My family once had a papaya tree which I, despite never caring much for papayas, had to eat most of the products of on account of everyone else being on vacation. They were fairly small…slightly smaller than a softball, I’d estimate…and round, reddish-orange on the inside. And exquisite. I tell you, even some mangos had nothing on those papayas.
The reason for my initial recalcitrance, of course, was the few times I’d eaten store-bought papayas…y’know, the big yellow-orange gourd shapes. Some of them were just awful (the word I’d used is “plaster”, although just about any buliding material will suffice). I’m pretty sure this was an unwanted effect of all the genetic manipulation needed to make them that big and abundant, although admittedly some of them may have been simply unripe. Properly ripened store papayas, although not comparable to those homegrown reddish-orange beauties, are pretty good.
In my experience, no fruit (with the possible exception of cherries) has a greater gamut of quality than papayas, and because of that, you’re far more likely to get a bad papaya than a bad kiwifruit, banana, or even apple. So while papayas may not always taste like…whatever, I can forgive you for thinking that.
P.S.: If you’re thinking of owning a papaya tree, be advised that it never stops growing, and cutting even part of it down effectively halts its fruit production. Have a tall ladder handy.
So what’s the best way to choose a papaya, given that when they’re bad they’re really bad? Is it size, color, firmness, season? Is indication usually given as to their place of origin? What’s the key?
mostly, luck. And trust in your source. Sorry. A confident seller will be willing to cut it open for you and show you that it is good. You will have to eat it that same day, of course.
The main issue I have found with papayas (the long ones) is that they don’t ripen evenly. Soft spots or green hard sections are a clear sign that you will only be eating a part of your expensive chunk of tropicalness, so steer clear from those.
Other than that, it is really hit or miss. Colour is not much of an indicator, although don’t buy a green one, of course. You do want it to be yielding yet firm, but that is no indicator that it will taste right. In the end, a crappy papaya looks and feels pretty much like a good one. If anything, interior colour is the best indicator. You want it to be as red as possible. Pumpkin orange is not good.
Incidentally, I appreciate the lime juice tip. I have some Thai friends who own a restaurant, and they are always giving me papayas. I’ll have to try the lime juice thing.
Don’t really need a tall ladder. At about 6 or 8 feet you’ll notice small branches developing about 3 or 4 feet off the ground. Simply cut the main trunk off above one of these branches and they will soon develop fruit. I’ve seen papaya plants with 8 “arms” all with fruit.
I love papaya and it doesn’t taste anything like ass. I eat it nearly daily at breakfast. There are btw different types of papaya. Around here the commercially grown variety are maradol. They aren’y nearly as tasty as the criollo which used to grow everywhere but have been crossbred out of existence here.
When you do, you might want to pronounce it as somtam, with the “a” the same as in “father, and the “t” pronounced mote like a “d”.” It’s usually rendered on English-language menus as “spicy papaya salad.” Really is quite good.
