tropical fruit euphoria

while the heat of the past month has been intense at best and oppressive at worst, every cloud does have its silver lining. with this stifling heat, comes a barrage of scrumptious tropical fruits in sometimes unexpected bundles. thankfully, our neighbors have taken pity on our tree-less selves and offered up some real gems recently. i've highlighted some of our new favorites below.

kinep in kriol, or guaya in spanish is a surprisingly sweet little treat contained in a fuzzy outer skin with a large pit inside.

sapodilla or sapote is another delectable treat. the flesh literally melts in your mouth and has a slightly grainy texture, but sweetly delicious all the same.

one of the many types of local plums, these can be eaten during the green stage, with salt and ground chili pepper, or enjoyed a few days later, when the skin has turned to a reddish color and it tastes a bit more like what we know as a plum.

this brazilian cashew fruit was given to us by our friend jake, a volunteer in a nearby village who is blessed to live in a tropical fruit salad. cashew fruit can be quite fibrous and stringy, and has a somewhat peculiar flavor. as advised by jake, we enjoyed these ones by only sucking the juice out, and didn't mess with the flesh much. note the cashew nut on top. the process of harvesting and preparing cashew nuts for consumption is quite grueling and involved. in addition to enjoying the nut and the fruit in the basic ways, belizeans also make wine and jam from the fruit, as well as a number of dessert dishes.