Pudding Fruit?

October 3, 2008 8:15 PM

What's the name of this fruit we bought at a farmer's market in Kauai?

The rind is fairly rigid and, for lack of a better description, scaly. But the meat of the fruit had a pudding like consistency, and actually tasted like vanilla pudding. The fruit contained about 5-10 black seeds about the length of a dime (but not as wide).

posted by tdischino to food & drink (6 comments total)

A custard apple or sugar apple. Follow the wikipedia links for other fruits also called custard-apples.
posted by tavegyl at 8:27 PM on October 3, 2008

tavegyl has it. they taste very nice when mixed with raspberry. i sometimes make pies with the combination.
posted by Manhasset at 8:36 PM on October 3, 2008

Wow, thanks tavegyl. Looking at the linked pages, it looks most like the smaller fruit here. When my wife saw the name Cherimoya, she seemed to remember the lady we bought it from calling it that.
posted by tdischino at 8:47 PM on October 3, 2008

this sounds delicious! anyone know where i might find them for sale in Oakland? I live very near Chinatown, so I'll probably check the markets there today.
posted by fishfucker at 9:16 AM on October 4, 2008

fishfucker, the best season to find cherimoyas in California is spring, when the California crops peak, but you may find some imports. Check the mexican markets around International if you have no luck in Chinatown. There's a few different varieties that show up- they don't all look as crazy and scaly as the pictures above.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:30 PM on October 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

For anyone on the US East Coast reading this jealously, pawpaws are in season right now in PA/Ohio/West VA. Pudding texture, lightly tropical flavor -- banana/mango-esque.

Same family of fruit, except that the rind is very, very soft and thin (it is pretty obvious upon handling them why they're expensive when you see them in farmer's markets -- they're almost impossible to ship.)
posted by desuetude at 12:38 PM on October 4, 2008