Sugar-Apple: Dessert on a Shrub

I was given this strange looking fruit the other night by friends that run a Thai restaurant in town. It looked like a mix between an artichoke and a pine cone. It was green and I was told to wait until the outer scales turned brown before eating.

I put it on the kitchen window sill and almost forgot about it. It had since turned a dark colour and was squeezable. I peeled the scales off and what was underneath was a soft, custard-like core.

I cut the fruit into wedges, like one would do with an apple. The pits are large, hard, black and plentiful. I tentatively tried the flesh and was amazed. It tasted like a prepared apple custard. It was quite sweet and worth the effort to work around the pits.

The fruit is high in calories but relatively low in fat. There is also a good supply of calcium and iron in the fruit.

The fruit is also known as custard-apple and the latin name is annona squamosa. Despite the fact that it is popular among the east asian countries, the fruit is thought to have originated in the Caribbean and is cultivated throughout the Caribbean as well as Pakistan and India.