06 Apr Fruits of Kaua’i: Rollinia, chico, mangostein, and guava

More fun fruits here on Kauai! Our market neighbor Jenny frequently has tropical tree fruits we’ve never heard of or seen before! Last week we snagged a rollinia, which is a papaya sized tree fruit that tastes like a light and creamy lemon custard. You slice it open and eat the soft, juicy inside leaving the large seeds and rind behind. Absolutely delicious!

Jenny also sells mangosteins, which are a smaller, thick-rined fruit with a thick stem and thick leaves. They require a little more skill to eat: first the stem has to be popped off and pulled out. Then you grip the mangostein and squeeze until the rind pops. Inside looks like the sections of a small white orange: fleshy, without any skin. These little nibbles taste SO GOOD — like a white raspberry with just a hint of a blueberry. These are definitely our new favorite fruit here!

We also recently got to try a Chico – another super sweet tree fruit. It’s so sweet it tastes like brown sugar and a quarter of one is more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Lastly – guava guava guava! A third of the famous POG flavor – a popular variety sold here in hawaii in smoothies, candies, beer flavors… stands for Pineapple-Orange-Guava. Guava trees grow all over the island and do so well they often thought of as weeds or invasive species. The guava fruit often drop or are pecked by birds before they can be harvested, thus seeding new trees easily and becoming a haven for fruit flies and other pests. We’ve heard of locals going around the national parks and specifically cutting down Guava to help prevent their spread! Meanwhile, on the farm we have a couple guava trees on the edges of the property. They were fruiting the first 2-3 months we were here and are now just starting to fruit again! Guava are one of my favorites so no complaints here!