A few posts back, I got several comments asking me what the wooden piece was that the fruit were resting on. It’s actually a carved piece of wood (type unknown) that was “distressed” on purpose and meant for export. Is it a footed bowl of sorts? However, this particular piece was completely cockeyed from certain angles, so it was a production reject. We purchased it years ago from Soumak (South of Makati), this chi-chi purveyor of very upscale sisal carpets, bamboo furniture, linens, etc. It was the only interesting and reasonably priced item in the showroom when we visited… :) Some asked if it was made of mango wood and it is not. We do have a wonderful mango wood salad bowl given to us by in-laws some 20 years ago and it is still in good shape, with it’s characteristic lines/grains of dark black against a nearly narra like brown. By the way, the photo above was used as the opening photo for my series for Philstar.com on summer fruits. You may have missed it as the placement is rather obscure, so here’s a link to all the posts so far, in case you were interested.
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Philstar.com. Sorry I am not familiar with that, MM. But, will certainly click on the link. I must have missed something, huh? Beautiful picture.
Of course I’m interested! *lol*
The balimbing. Oh, how it brings back childhood memories of those star-shaped slices swimming in cane vinegar+soy sauce, turning young lips and tongues white with its gentle acidity. Not to mention the spanks I got for being caught climbing trees when I should be studying. Harhar…
Do you have any news about our duhat? I haven’t seen one for several summers now and my 10-yr. old daughter and I really miss it. We miss that sour, sweet, bitter and salty (because of the added rock salt) taste all at the same time. We love sticking our tongues out to show how much duhat we’ve devoured….hay sarrap….
Wow, you have many articles na! Congratulations. Good reading for my kids who don’t know what these fruits are. Keep these summer fruits coming. BTW, very nice photos you have. Cheers!
hi mm! the bizzarely shaped brown fruit mentioned is indeed the fruit of the nipa palm, we call it “kibal” from where i came from (mauban, quezon) i remember eating those when i was little, it tasted sweet and has the same consistency as kaong (if it is inedible then i can say i survived! lol! ). lambanog makers would collect sap from nipa palm to make what else but lambanog. tagay na!
melissa, cool, I totally stand corrected if the fruit are edible in a less mature state. When I bought these, they were hard as rock… :)
I wonder why still life paintings are not popular in the Philippines when as
you said we have such a wide array of fruits. Thanks for the very interesting and informative blogs on our fruits
How about writing on camachile?
I always look out for your fruity articles MM! Give me chilled melon with condensed milk please! :)
@ Mylene: there are duhat vendors popping up here and there (saw some in guadalupe Market and Market! Market! Fiesta Market to name a few…) but expect the prices to be much steeper than usual though.
Good am, MM. I went to Philstar.com and enjoyed reading about the different fruits I loved when growing up. I sent a copy of the pickling of the paho to my sister and she thanks you for the recipe. We have 2 big trees of paho in our backyard and it was only last year that she tried pickling them. She will try again next year when she goes back. Strange that I never knew about it, most probably because each time I go back it is not the season for them to bear fruit. But my cousins sure enjoyed the harvest. More power to you, MM.
tonceq, thanks for the tip! I live in the South and surprisingly, I could not find any in the BF or Alabang markets…I guess we will have to make a trip to Makati/Taguig.
Thanks for all your very informative articles on Philippine fruit so far. Really enjoyable to read and make me feel nostalgic for the fruit we enjoyed during our childhood. Are you going to feature the mabolo?
EJ, Mabolo is not so easy to find these days I find, but I have written about it before on the blog, in the archives. Mylene, duhat should be hitting markets now, we have two trees in our backyard that are filled with them… farida, I have to say, I have NEVER actually seen a paho tree! Sonia Ner, the fourth article on the series in Philstar was on Kamachile, with some nice photos too… :)
I just read your post on mabolo. My dad has a tree in his yard. I don’t know how he gets rid of all the fruit because I’ve never heard of anyone coming to the house asking for it. I’ve tried it and the smell just turns me off and the fruit reminds me of a soft apple, which is not a good thing. It’s pretty though if you could place it in a nice glass vase or fruit bowl on a table but you can’t do that because of the smell! It is a beautiful, large tree that gives a lot of shade…so that’s a positive.
Grownups who crave camachile surprise me because I regard it, along with aratiles, as essentially a part of foraging for very young kids. Btw, one cannot really climb up a camachile tree because the trunk and branches are covered with sharp barbs so you need a long reaching pole to get at the ripening curls. Now what I truly crave is camachile cookies. Once a common offering of every mid-century bakery, they were well-leavened crumbly cookies shaped more like straight three-seeded tamarind rather than a curled bursting camachile fruit. A recipe fell into my hands a few years ago but it called for hartshorn (amoniaco or baker’s ammonia) for leavening and not knowing where to get what turned out to be ammonium carbonate here, I passed on the chance of replicating them in my own kitchen.
@Susan, … it’s a beautiful, large tree that gives a lot of shade…so that’s a positive. And once the tree is felled, it gives an even more beautiful precious wood, kamagong.