Day: May 1, 2005

Nina Paley

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Nina Paley rules so much – I just watched her “sitayana” which is just the Sita parts of the Ramayana, animated and set to music. Extremely cool. Also it’s good because it’s a good little bit of exposure for a famous legend/story that most “westerners” aren’t even aware of.
Web link of note: Nina Paley
(At http://www.ninapaley.com/)

Rick Geary

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Rick Geary is another artist I saw at APE- he did some small comic books on the Lizzie Borden and Jack the Ripper murders, as well as the assassination of President Garfield. Obscure but cool.
Web link of note: Rick Geary
(At http://www.rickgeary.com/)

Mamey Sapote

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As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been following a certain exotic fruit tree nursery for a while, and made a list of fruits from there I had never previously heard of. The fruits were listed in an issue of “Spirit of Aloha,” which I read exactly one year ago, on our honeymoon. (Yay, we made it to one year…)

One of the fruits is the “mamey sapote.”

Yesterday we were at Berkeley Bowl, grabbing some supplies, and I ran into a friend with his baby in tow… after we spoke I was sort of meandering around, in that post-conversation state where I think about what was just said, and ended up in the little exotic fruits nook they keep there.

A man was there, looking at the fruits, and we had a brief conversation- he remarked how there was some pretty random stuff there, and wondered aloud what these brown football things were. I said, I know, wow, I have no idea- oh wait!!! This is a mamey sapote!!!

This poor guy must have thought he was on Candid Camera… I excitedly explained how I had been looking for one of these for years, and I had expected I would have to buy an entire tree just to taste it… he was appropriately afraid.

So, we ate part of it this morning. It wasn’t cheap: over $3 a pound. We bought a 3 pound one… the flesh is indeed pumpkinlike. I’m not sure I’d call it chocolatey though. It has the mild flavor of a pumpkin, with a cool firmness that is softer than an uncooked pumpkin. The flesh is fairly dry, so we found it was best with a little coconut milk. Its flavor would probably be overpowered by lime juice.

Later today we will attempt to make a custard or even a tart out of the rest.
The big list, summarized from the Spirit of Aloha article by Ray:

  • mabolo, or velvet persimmon
  • durian (an aphrodisiac fruit that smells like a toilet)
  • mangosteen
  • Baccaurea sapida, Burmese grape, mafai wan in Thai, or yaow in Vietnamese
  • Keppel fruit
  • Sapadilla, salak, or Indonesian “snake fruit” (“tart and astringent” flesh? yum?)
  • dark-purple mango, found only near Banjarmaisin, Borneo
  • Abiu (Amazon, melon and caramel taste, persimmon texture)
  • young leaves and shoots of pak wan, or tropical asparagus
  • Peanut butter fruit (texture is like Skippy’s)
  • Marang (a breadfruit, Phillipines, vanilla ice cream)
  • Mamey sapote (tastes of chocolate, pumpkin and almond)
  • Sawo (tastes like a honey-flavored peach or pear)

What is kind of weird is Berkeley Bowl also had a “sapote” a few months ago- it was a small green thing, an tasted a bit like a pear.