Fruit for Thought

The exotic fruit plate still costs under two bucks

Right now is a good time to be in Mysore for fruit lovers. The Papaya is fresh and cheap, as are the small bananas. Vivian loves it here for that- she can't eat bananas at home after a few months of 'banana season.' Pomegranates are available but pricey. By that I mean India-pricey. When I left, Ralph's Thriftway was having the red fruit on sale for $3. mine cost 75 cents. What I love most about the fruit situation here is that you can get it most anywhere. Nearly every street will have a produce vendor set up at a shop, or a basket at the counter, or a cart full at the street corner. You can be safe to eat anything with a skin on it if you're on the road somewhere and need a snack. Cut fruit is usually kept 'fresh' by the vendor's constant moistening with tap-water. Trust me-- that's not tap-water we are used to. But back to my point, and the picture. We have a special fruit family we buy from as we have for six years. They have a cart conveniently located between the Ganesh Temple and the coconut stand, just down the road from everything. They were more convenient when we lived two blocks away, but still worth the 8-block trek. They always insist on picking the fruit out themselves, or HE picks it out, SHE weighs it, bags it, and takes our cash. We always get the freshest 'today' fruit or occasionally for 'tomorrow.' He has a way of knowing when food will die. Kind of a cross between dog-whisperer and the Dead Zone. Again back to the point- yesterday he gave me (free!) a piece of the grenade-looking thing on the plate. He said to pry it open and eat it. Simple enough. I like direction, especially with alien substances. The texture is like elephant skin holding jelly-- rough hide but soft and squishy. Weird. I thought it would go bad before the night was out as it started leaking. Fruit isn't supposed to leak. The inside revealed a series of large seeds inside their own membrane sack, the whole of which was surrounded with goo. I took several pods in my mouth as the fruit nearly exploded, and was suprised! The seed casings were sweet like flowers or incense and under them I scraped out about a quarter-inch of goo that some describe as custard-like. The texture and taste resembles sugar! Hence the street name of sugar apples.  I'm not saying that I'm addicted yet, I just don't WAN'T to stop right now. I'm up to two a day and I've already gone back for more and paid for them this time.

aeryk