Sorry for the delay in the next installment of my Peeking at Pika series - I can only put it down to having visitors here!
C is finally for (Pomme or Prune) Cythere Site Ambarella
An interesting part of preparing these posts is finding all the english names for fruits and vegetables I only know in French. It turns out the cythere has many many names, including Otaheite apple, Golden apple and Tahitian Apple or Quince, so take your pick for your favourite one!
There are many fruits here which are "Pomme something" including maracudja, mango, callebasse, cannelle and even pomme de terre comes to mind. What is it with the word apple that it is applied so liberally, I wonder...
Cythere season was during the couple of months before Christmas, when we had them in abundance and enjoyed a cythere (or two or three) a day. They were very welcome as no other fruits were available. Now we have one every now and then.
We have three trees I think and they are so tall, it is rather hard to see the top where all the fruit is. As a result, it is not a fruit that you pick - you have to wait for the it to fall first!
When it is not yet ripe, the fruit is green and very sour. 
It then is ready to eat when it turns yellow, although it is still very hard and has quite a tart taste. When it goes soft it is no longer good. It has quite a bit of flesh but on the inside there is a very strange large stone with spiky bits all over it.
Aside from eating cytheres, we also make a lovely juice when it is still green but it definitely needs sweetening! Bertie makes it by the rather time-consuming method of taking off the flesh and blending with water then sieving several times, though it still remains thick. Others just blend the whole fruit, stone included, but I am not sure if that is very good for your blender! We have also been given some jam made from cythere - with the stones still included!Good for you
There is not an abundance of information on the cythere but it seems to contain iron, calcium and vitamin C too.
Sources: wikipedia http://caribfruits.cirad.fr/fruits_des_antilles/pomme_cythere http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/ambarella_ars.html www.cess-martinique.com/alimentation.html
2 comments:
I hadn't seen it called quince and its definitely not the quince that grows around us in London- although maybe I need a closer look at that
You say finally - does that mean you've thought of a 'd'
I cant wait to see...
It is actually tahitian quince i think - check wiki to see. No ds i am afraid so will be skipping over to e or f!
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