Cashew Apple

Above, left to right, unripe cashew apples and a single ripe cashew apple.

Yesterday, our granny neighbor offered us a perfectly ripe cashew apple that she and her daughter had picked from the great cashew tree growing at the end of the street. When the tree first bore fruit a few months ago, M. and I marveled at the bright red fruit with the cashew-shaped 'tail.' We hadn't known that it was a cashew tree. And, actually, at the time, we took one of the fruits that had already fallen off, thinking it wouldn't be missed.

I took a picture of it, with the intention of eating the fruit that evening. But it sat on the table on the terrace, forgotten, and eventually thrown out. There is certainly some reluctance to eat something without knowledge of it being good, at the very least confirmation that it isn't downright unpalatable. A fearless explorer, I am not.

Left, the uneaten (stolen) cashew apple. What is eaten was done so by the bats that flock to the tree.


But this time, the cashew apple was offered as (tasty) food by an Antillaise. She told me to eat it skin and all. The fruit was extremely soft, like a ripe tomato; I felt as if I could squish it entirely in one fist. I cut the fruit in half and was surprised to find that the inside bore an uncanny resemblance to flan or egg custard. M. watched as I placed a wedge in my mouth and chewed. It was smooth and soft like flan, except that there were rather tough fibers. Almost as if someone had placed baked bits of cheesecloth in their flan. Eventually, the fibrous bits went down, but for subsequent pieces, I spat those bits out.

It tasted like very sweet apple. Surprising, given that most of the time, the name of the fruit bares no resemblance - in taste or form - to its namesake. For example, the caimite or star apple neither looks or tastes like an apple. More likely, its name characterized it as an edible fruit.

M. hesitated much before trying it, and did not like the texture at all. I suppose my description of cheesecloth baked in flan wasn't very appetizing. I admit that while it tasted good, the eating was strange. An alien fruit - even when sweet - is somewhat hard to swallow.