A whole box of Nenita pomelos freshly transported from Davao…how could I resist? 
I put an earlier post on pomelos but I thought this source deserved a mention here. A family friend sent a text yesterday and asked if I would be interested in trying a box of freshly delivered pomelo from the Floirendo farms in Davao. I promply texted “yes†back and an hour later a box weighing about 16 kilos more or less was at our front door and I paid PHP1,500 or just under P100 a kilo. My wife had just purchased some pomelo earlier in the day for PHP145 a kilo at the grocery so this appears to be a pretty good deal. The fruit in the box was quite unblemished (makinis) and most of the fruit seemed heavy for their size. I also noted the new stickers that branded each fruit…if you still have the old stickers on market fruit I would think they were fake… This certainly looked really promising…
We opened two of the fruits and I was in pomelo heaven. 
Plump, juicy and medium sweet, this was definitely an 8.5 out of 10 on the Marketman Pomelo Scale. I have yet to try others in the box and I am always wary of dry ones or tasteless ones but it is very hard to get consistently good pomelos, regardless of name brand or supplier. Now the problem is, what the heck do you do with 16 kilos of the stuff? I sent some out to friends, plan to make a thai pomelo salad with spicy lime and chilli dressing and if I am really bored, try some candied pomelo peel… Oh, and here’s a way to serve great pomelo that is both unusual and absolutely delicious. Serve 3-4 segments of peeled pomelo on a dessert plate with fried bagoong alamang or shrimp paste. It sounds bizarre but the sweet/tart flavor of the pomelo goes well with the saltiness of the bagoong. Serve this before your sweet desserts such as cake. If you want to try this supplier, call or text Thes at 8154559 or 09189177470 or 09178385050. They can arrange delivery in the Makati area only. I am not in any way related to Nenita farms (unless there were naughty ancestors I didn’t know about…) or the retailer. I do not make any money from this post. I will not accept any responsibility if you get a bum pomelo…
9 Responses
thank you so much for the tip, marketman. we love good pomelos! will surely call them asap….
Question:
Is pomelo suha? Is it the same as grapefruit? Kasi I seem to remember sort of liking suha (not a big fan though)… but I absolutely abhor grapefruit for its sour-and-bitter-at-the-same-time taste.
Pomelo is suha in Filipino and bu-ongon in Cebuano. It is related to grapefruit but a different fruit altogether. Grapefruit is an acquired taste. Pomelo is a bit easier to stomach. If you live on the West Coast, Asian markets may have pomelos on offer. It even made it to the cover of Food & Wine Magazine last January or so… good ones are really good. A lot of the bitterness in both fruit comes from the membrane around the pulp.
Thank you! We love suha in the office and we’re in Makati, so P1500 is a good deal if the suha is sweet and juicy.
I believe pomelos are harvested when they are not ripe so that they can be kept for a longer period for sale. Such pomelos are not usually sweet and juicy. When we purchase such pomelos, we keep them till the body is softer. The chances of getting a sweet and juicy pomelo is much higher then.
speaking of pomelos, has anyone ever tried that chinese dish in HK using the white part of the pomelo rind inside? believe you me it is super sarap! I had it 6 yrs. ago. it was sauted or braised and i can’t remember the name. :-( it looked like overcooked ginisang sayote or something. Imagine a fruit made into ulam.
Don’t worry about them spoiling on you. Believe me, you and your family can finish that whole crate because it doesn’t rot easily. If I remember right, the same batch can still be ok up to two weeks.
One time, my father wanted to see how long the shelf life of a suha was. He left one sitting out for about three weeks and when he opened it, it was still sweet and juicy.
Don’t be fooled by the small, slightly shriveled ones. They actually turn out to be juicier and sweeter than the perfectly nice and shiny ones. This tip I learned from my Mom, who used to sell suha to her friends, and the fruit vendors in Davao.
would anyone be able to give me a clue as to where to get seedlings of the very sweet pomelos described? I guess Nenita farms would not be selling their seedlings but who knows.
Anyway, I’m in Chiang Mai today and for the past two breakfasts in Bangkok we have had peeled pomelo in the fruit platters – and they are very big and surprisingly very sweet. I grew up in Davao and have had very sweet pomelos but they were invariably small to medium small in size. These Thai pomelos are really big. Anyway, back to my original request on leads to a good pomelo seedling bank – any info will be much appreciated.
Try the Manila Seedling Bank or smaller markets lke FTI taguig on Saurdays, they have some pomelo seedlings. Not sure if they will be anytwhere as good as a nenita or a bangkok version…