Food I Didn't Eat in Clive, IA

A while back I was on the phone (read: VOiP) with my parents and my dad was asking about what I had had for lunch that day. It's a question he asks fairly often when we talk and did so also when I was in China, because, it's something so normal, daily for me that I rarely think to bring it up, but can sometimes have a very interesting answer. Most of the time it's the same answer, rice, beans, a type of meat, and cabbage, tomato, onion salad-all chopped. Yet, the day I talked with him I happened to mention that we had heart of palm salad. He didn't know what heart of palm was or maybe had heard of it but didn't know what it looked like/tasted like. So, he thought it'd be a good idea for me to blog about foods I'd eaten that were new to me. My guess is they're probably new to most Americans, although I'm sure you can get about everything on this list in some exotic food store, or in California or Hawaii or Florida, or somewhere with growing conditions similar to a tropical climate. Sadly, I've had plenty of other odd foods, but didn't have the camera around or didn't think to take a picture of it. I've provided links for some of the fruits-in case you want to find out more. 

 Cilantro. The home grown kind. Cilantro the way we think of it is available in every supermarket, but this type of cilantro, which can be planted and grown super easily almost anywhere, is commonly grown by many Costa Ricans in their backyards. It's kind of creepy how it smells exactly like cilantro, yet looks like dandelion leaves. 

 Cashew. Or, perhaps, wild cashew. The nut is underneath the shell and a poisonous layer of skin-opening and roasting cashews is something only to be done with extreme care. But, the 'cashew apple' that hangs down below it can be eaten with no worries. These grow on big, wide trees. My host dad really likes them, I found it kind of sour and not particularly appealing. I had no idea this was how cashew grew. 

 Known as 'granadilla' in Spanish (which means 'little pomegranate') and apparently called sweet granadilla in English, this fruit is not passion fruit-but is quite similar. The little crunchy black seeds are surrounded by a fleshy, slippery, clear substance that is sweet at times and more often a tad sour. I was told to eat the seeds and the fleshy goo (seen in the right half below) and did so. It's not bad, a very interesting in mouth experience with the contrast of the slick flesh and the crunchy seeds. 

 Heart of palm, 'palmito' in Spanish (at least here). Palm trees (I believe any type-either coconut or peach palm or palm fruit) are chopped down when they are quite young and the outer bark is stripped away, leaving the inner part of the trunk, which is still soft. You can see it chopped in the bowl above, the few half moon shapes indicate the approximate diameter of the part of the trunk that is used for heart of palm. It's a very soft vegetable (?), and doesn't have too much taste. 

Arazá. I don't think there's an English name for this fruit. I visited the farm of an RPCV couple (former  Peace Corps volunteers) that lives near me and they introduced me to this fruit. My host parents didn't know what it was called, but luckily a neighbor kid confirmed the name given to me by the couple as I had half forgotten it. The fruit looks and smells delicious, but is super sour-so is usually cooked with rice to prepare a type of juice. 

Guanábana. Soursop in English, this fruit has been featured in my previous blog post about making ice cream. All the ones you see above came from the tree in the backyard when it was at maximum production, as in all that fruit came down in one or two days. The shell is hard and the spikes sharp when it's growing, but it becomes soft and the spikes soften when it's ripe. Thus, it's important to pull them down from the tree when ripe, because when they fall they'll probably explode. The fruit inside is white and very moist, almost creamy. As the name indicates, it's sour, and if not fully ripe is very sour. A hard stem goes down the middle of the fruit. 

Water apple-Chinese style. This is a variation of the water apple (manzana de agua) which is very popular here. The regular water apple is about the size of a pear, and is, as it's name indicates a very juicy fruit. The fruit seen above was introduced to me as 'manzana de agua china', which may or may not mean it has Asian roots. Either way, it's similar to the water apple, with a juicy, white flesh that is a bit sweet but hasn't much flavor. 

Ice cream bean. 'Guaba' in Costa Rican Spanish. I believe I've blogged about this food before. It grows in huge, wide trees. This pod is cracked open and there are 15 or so dark black seeds surrounded by a soft, white flesh that is kind of like a mix between ice cream and cotton candy. They are delicious. The last time I had one my host mom bought a bag from a guy selling them on his bike. My host brother and I sat down and each ate three or four pods immediately. 

 Plantains are an incredibly common and important part of the Costa Rican diet. Yet these super fat and quite short plantains are not so common, I've only seen them two or three times in my time here. When I had them they tasted exactly the same as your regular plantain. 

This post ends with probably the least notable of the pictures. Above is an avocado, which is something I do eat in Clive, Iowa. But, every avocado I ever saw in the US was the Hass avocado, which makes up something like 80 or 90% of the avocados sold in the US. Not the case in Costa Rica, which grows lots of avocados. They are often much bigger than the Hass variety, and come in all shades of green, as well as the dark, dark green that Americans are accustomed to.