Fruits of the day: guava and guaba

If you have spent much time with Spanish speakers, you may have noticed that the "v" and "b" sounds are often used interchangeably. That is not the case with these two fruits. That one almost imperceptible sound is the difference between a somewhat familiar round crunchy fruit, and something more suitable to Saturday morning cartoons!

this is a guava

this is a guaba

 Guava is a firm textured fruit, vaguely like a pear without much flavor. I have heard people say the taste is like pear with a hint of strawberry. I disagree. I don't know if that is because the guavas I ate were not at the right stage of ripeness, or because those people have only tasted those gigantic flavor-less, pithy strawberries that are so hardy and ship-able. (Oh, Oregon strawberries, how I miss you!) I found the guavas I have eaten to be unobjectionable, but mostly flavorless. They are big, cheap, plentiful, and easy to manage. They can fill you up, but were a bit cardboard-y.

inside a guava is kinda boring--like the taste. you can eat the seeds if you want.

Guaba is this weird, giant, alien, bean pod. I have heard that it is sometimes called "ice cream plant" because the stuff inside reminds people of vanilla ice cream flavored cotton candy.

who would expect something sweet from inside this?

The pod is very (and I mean VERY) tough and fibrous. You can open it without a knife, buy your fingernails will wish you had used a knife. Once you rip open the guaba you will see a row of bean-like seeds. Most of mine were sprouting. Surrounding each bean is a white furry coating. That seed coat is the only part that is edible. 

It kinda goes against all my food-safety instincts to purposely eat something furry. I guess that's why travelers often describe it as "cotton-candy-like" to help people take the plunge and eat that furry stuff. But the texture is nothing like cotton candy. I think people describe it that way because they think it sounds better than saying, "caterpillar-skin".  But trust me, my description is far more accurate. Of course, I suppose, to a lot of people that might sound bad. But these "caterpillar skins" are delicious!

The furry skin thing is smooth on the side that touches the bean, and slips off of the bean easily. I thought it would be dry and chewy, or cottony, but it is quite juicy. I didn't really get the vanilla ice cream taste that was described to me--but it was certainly as sweet as ice cream. Incredibly sweet, and very mild. As I tried to pin down the flavor one furry caterpillar skin after another,  I was reminded of eating jelly beans. The sugar-y taste often overpowers the mildly familiar flavor and you are reading the back of the package to figure out what the pink ones are supposed to be.

From the whole gi-normous pod, you end up with just a tiny bit of food. This is not a fruit to pack as your lunch, but it is a delightfully sweet treat. And inside the beans are some beautiful little surprises!