A quick tally of the responses to the previous post had yielded some expected and unexpected results. Mangoes are far and away the most popular fruit of marketmanila respondents so far. I am lumping together green and ripe mangoes as they are essentially the same fruit, enjoyed at different stages of their ripening process. I couldn’t agree more that this would be my top tropical fruit. If I could only have one fruit for the rest of my life, it would be a fine mango. Here are the other results so far:
1. Mangoes (Green and Ripe, mostly Carabao variety) (73% of commenters mentioned one or both kinds of mangoes in their list of 5 fruits!)
2. Lanzones (Just got me some from Camiguin minutes ago, and they are superb)
3. Mangosteen
4. Bananas (All varieties, including saba, latundan, lacatan, seniorita, etc.)
5. Pomelo
6. Atis
7. Chico
8. Watermelon (Pakwan)
9. Jackfruit (Langka)
10. Rambutan
11. Pineapple
12. Coconut (Buko)
13. Santol
14. Melon
15. Guyabano (this is a bit of a surprise, how is this enjoyed?)
16. Kalamansi (boo, too low on the list, I think many don’t consider this a “fruit” but it is… imagine life without it?)
17. Star Apple (Caimito)
18. Strawberry
19. Durian
20. Duhat (mentioned by only 7% of commenters)
Now please do me another favor and answer the poll question regarding fruit so we can have a more definitive view of readers favorites. Many thanks! I find this so interesting, I hope you do too!
19 Responses
sarap naman talaga ng mangga ng pinas eh, esp guadalupe mangga (im too biased). what we have here (in arizona) are mexican mangoes and they can never hold a candle next to pinoy mangoes.
haay MarketMan, buti na lang may blog..
I’m so asar right now..
With the calamansi, this is often overlooked..
Tried to make a calamansi sherbet, it’s not exactly perfect, but calamansi is really interesting, this fruit just truly continues to amaze me..
I like guyabano shake – with sugar & lots of ice … quite refreshing
Hello marketman. wow- it is really pleasant surprise to have you visit my site.. Ooops! yeah- it was Christmas 2007 food wishlist, hehehe… I forgot to mention that it’s supposed to be a ‘year’ later wishlist! you really have a wonderful site. thanks for posting all those ‘yummy’ articles… Most of my wishlist- I got it from your site. Your pictures and articles of all the food are really well written. No wonder, I and the rest would always love to come back for more.
and pahabol- since it’s christmas time, will you be holding a contest of sorts and give away a jam? or fruitcake? or a copy of your book? (is it published? I read someone commenting about your book. Would love to buy it).
I like guyabano shake too. It tops my list of fruit shakes.
I also like eating the fruit when it is not too ripe yet, “manibalang” as commonly referred to in Tagalog. At this stage it has the right sweetness and tartness and is crunchy too! A truly ripe fruit is oftentimes more tart than sweet.
This article is a learning experience for me. I am a Canadian living in Austria (Europe) and have visited the Philippines twice this year. With all the information and favourites posted here I cannot wait for my next visit (hopefully 3 months long)and get to try a few of the unknowns in your list.
Readers seemed to have distinguished between fruits eaten out of hand and fruits that are cooked or used as ingredient that’s why calamansi did not make the grade. In the latter category belong rimas and camansi, the former being great for frying (you had an excellent post on this) and glacing (our default mode at home) and the latter almost invariably as gulay with coconut milk and its seeds grilled or boiled as chestnut ersatz.
hey MM. this post just reminded me that i love guyabano too!
P.S. i just got a bottle of fresh roasted, peeled chestnuts…bet you don’t get that there!
Guyabano-just separate the pulp from the seeds (obviously after peeling, place in a bowl, put ice and sugar and enjoy!
We grew up with that as a treat from our cook.
Guayabano can be enjoyed so many ways – matured ones can be cooked in syrup minatamis fashion. The soft and ready ones are great as is chilled and I am talking here the sweet variety. There are guayabanos out there that are tart when you bite to it – you make faces. Pureed the soft ones with sugar syrup for sherbet or shake. Yes, I will be miserable without kalamansi and cannot even picture how my pancit will be. I love them so much I have three full grown trees in my yard and made lots of friends with them. Everytime I drop a bag of kalamansi to Juana she will come back to me with goodies for exchange. I have a supply of kalamansi 365 days a year!
To answer your poll … I’d definitely have bananas apart from mangoes. I have bananas every single day here … even though US bananas are of the odd quick-ripening and slightly bland variety.
I’m surprised as well that lemonsito ranks low on the list. I definitely couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s among my top reasons why I don’t want to live in another country, I need my lemonsito.
Dea we had a small spiny tree that bore lemon shaped tiny fruits (smaller than alatires) red and orange when ripe, with clear resinous juice that you squeeze out of the citrus flavoured rind that mother candied and incorporated in fruitcake to take the place of some of the orange peel. Is that what you call limonsito? How do you use it?
Poor calamansi. It is the forgotten hero of our cuisine. I was squishing the life out of a couple of kilos of calamansi last night for hot juice. Couldn’t live without it. Am only catching up with the fruit articles now. I’m not too surprised that duhat gets a low rank either, but when they are in season, they sure make a big dent in my market budget.
love calamansi but never thought of it as a fruit, as a condiment, flavouring ingredient, yes, but not a fruit.
as for guyabano, i like to eat the ripened flesh dipped in sugar, also enjoy the shake version. they’re occasionally available at the markets here.
Yeah, I think the votes casted were mainly about fruits eaten as is. Mine were done that way, too. Ergo, the calamansi being left out. I do treasure my calamansi or mini limes. Comes in almost every dish I make (or at least as a condiment or marinade). Comes before lemon, imho.
Where can i buy some rambutans? I tasted them in the middle east and was not able to find them in any markets in pittsburgh and the only online one that I found was 30$ for 32 oz. this seemed like a lot. Where can I find these????!!!!!