December 2, 2020
What’s That Food? This month’s WTF is pitahaya. Botanically known as Selenicereus megalanthus, the fruits are also known as yellow dragon fruit, yellow pitahaya (sometimes spelled pitaya) or Pitaya Amarillo. A part of the cactus family, the fruit grows on stems that can grow to 20 feet long. It is native to Central and South America but is now also…
March 1, 2020
What’s that food? This month’s WTF is a familiar fruit in Indian cuisine. With its smooth green skin and elongated shape, tindora bears a resemblance to cucumbers, albeit a tiny cucumber. Like cucumber, tindora (Coccinia grandis) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family and the fruit grow on vigorous climbing vines, native to tropical climes. The plant is commonly found in the…
January 30, 2020
What’s that food? If you take an average size grapefruit and imagine it’s been quadrupled, you will get an idea of this month’s WTF. Pomelo (or pummelo, pomello, pumelo—each spelling is correct) is a type of citrus fruit native to south and southeast Asia. It’s the biggest of all citrus fruit, can weigh between one and two kilograms, and grow…
October 1, 2019
What’s that food? This month’s WTF is an essential ingredient in both Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce—condiments that find places of honour on many chefs’ and home cooks’ shelves. Tamarind is a fruit that offers a sour yet sweetly acidic flavour, hence its use in these sauces. Tamarind is an evergreen tree native to tropical Africa but is widely cultivated…
May 1, 2019
What the food? This month’s What’s That Food is the appropriately-named star apple. A round fruit about the size of a large apple, when ripe it is usually purple-skinned with a faint green tinge on the outside. Cut it in half and a deep, rich purple-and-white coloured pulp with a radiating star pattern is visible—voila, there’s your name! There are…
March 1, 2019
What’s that food? Looking like a spiky avocado, the soursop fruit is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and the Caribbean, and it can be eaten in much the same way as an avocado. Its scientific name is Annona muricata, and is considered one of the ‘custard apple’ fruits. It develops on evergreen trees and can grow to…
February 1, 2019
What’s that food? Look around the root vegetable section of your grocery store and you may come across this versatile vegetable. Jicama is also known as Mexican turnip, sweet turnip, Mexican potato, or Mexican yam bean and is, quite obviously from those names, native to Mexico. The ‘Pachyrhizus erosus’ is from the bean family and the vine grows best in…
October 1, 2018
Freshness is key to produce’s flavour offered at Arlington Orchards’ markets Barry Balsom considers himself to be in the “flavour business.” As far as the co-owner of Arlington Orchards is concerned, there is only one way to ensure that the products you buy at one of his three fresh market locations across the Island have a taste to savour: make…
February 1, 2018
(What’s that Food?) You will more than likely smell this large, tropical fruit before you see it, and chances are you will think you are smelling something other than what you are. Durian: some love it, and some love to hate it. It can be eaten raw when it is ripe or can be cooked. Enthusiasts and those familiar with…