The selection of esoteric fruits readily available from your corner grocery in Honolulu is indeed staggering (as is, in the case of certain examples, such as the durian, the poor soul who has to transport those fruits home from said grocery), and I would feel remiss if I did not at least attempt to provide some sort of survey of this cornucopia. Furthermore, I believe I have found the perfect excuse to do so, since he fruit smoothie is, really, the ideal breakfast food for hot climates, and has been the mainstay of my personal breakfast for two consecutive months now. Therefore, today's post shall be the first installment of a vast survey of the fruits available in Honolulu markets (and especially in Chinatown, which has become my go-to place for inexpensive produce these days). So, let the smoothie survey commence!
Each day, or at least every couple of days, I generally try to vary the fruit which becomes the centerpiece of breakfast. (However, that fruit is always pureed together with an apple banana, which provides some sweetness and substance without being too overpowering.) Regardless of what the fruit of the day happens to be, my breakfast smoothies generally seem to end up with the "base" ingredients listed below, plus that fruit. As a rule of thumb, the amount of the featured fruit to be used is whatever portion equals the size of the apple banana.
- 1 apple banana
- 17 ice cubes (about 2 cups)
- 1 tsp. raw cane sugar
- 1 tsp. peanut butter
- ½ cup water (plus extra, if needed to achieve the right consistency)
- salt to taste
That "long" in the first syllable is a translation of the Chinese word for dragon, and is the same morpheme that shows up, for example, in the name of the ubiquitous variety of green tea oft transliterated into Roman characters as "long ching" ("dragon well"). I confess I have not the sophistication of palate to distinguish the flavor of the longa from that of the lychee, though I take comfort in the fact that few whom I have polled do. I take even greater comfort in the fact that that flavor is pretty damn tasty. Longans seem to take quite well to dehydration, and result in pallid yet sweet and robustly-flavored "raisins" which outstrip the grape-based variety in nearly every aspect. They're also fantastic iced, or chilled in simple syrup, and while they don't quite pack the same punch in a fruit smoothie that, say, a soursop or chiku does, they don't fail utterly in that department either.
The cherimoya is, like the soursop, yet another one of those miraculous, delicately-custard-flavored New World fruits which seems to have found a worldwide audience in recent decades. They're fantastic in smoothies, and pretty good on their own, too.
The star apple, a.k.a. milk fruit, aguay, or caimito, is particularly striking in its appearance when halved perpendicular to its major axis (you'll immediately understand the origin of the name). Nevertheless, despite the asterism and porphyrial hue, I confess that upon sampling my first specimen, I was not terribly impressed. On the other hand, the subtle flavor seemed to complement well the apple banana in the smoothie to which I devoted the rest of the fruit I sampled, so it may be an item best taken in tandem with other fruits to bring out their flavoras — sort of the fructal equivalent of an aromatic spice.
I have saved the best for last, for the chiku (a.k.a. sapodilla or chiko), is perhaps the emperor of fruits. It originally hails from Central America, but has become a favorite in South Asia (whence the name "chiku"). Roughly the size an complexion of a kiwi (but without the cilia), its flesh, which ranges in color from ecru to deep orange, is sweet, yet not overpowering, and possesses a fascinatingly rich flavor whose nuances harmonize the best aspects of cantaloupe, egg custard, and chocolate. The rind can be eaten as well, and it yields a distinctive, rich brown countenance to the smoothies one creates from it. They're also just about the perfect serving size. I heartily recommend that anyone seek out this fruit, which I believe, at present, unparalleled among nature's offerings.
So that's it for this week's roundup, folks. Stay tuned for further adventures involving soursop, papaya, pineapple (practically the state's unofficial mascot), and more in the coming weeks.
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