Friday, December 13, 2013

Glad that's off my bucket list

I've been obsessing over this difficult-to-find fruit for the last couple of years, like it might be the last in a series of bizarre fruits which, when eaten, unlock immortality.  My friends and I were engaged in a "have you ever eaten XXX?" conversation, and this one was missing from my list.  In Thai, it's "ma-kwid"; in English, "limonia."

It's not delicious.  Cheese, yeast, and bread aromas wafted out, overpowering some more subtle ones (vanilla, perhaps) and that's not because the fruit was rotten. There's some sweetness there. The seeds are edible and crunchy. The best comparison in my mind would be to tamarinds, but apparently it's more closely related to ordinary citrus fruits, like oranges. Psychologically, the color and mushy texture doesn't help its appeal, of course.