I Say To-may-toe, You Say To-mo-toe, But It's Really A Persimmon

I love the food in Brazil, especially the fruit. There are so many different varieties of everything. You can buy like 10 different kinds of bananas, 6 different kinds of mangoes, 5 different kinds of oranges. Every week we go to the street market to pick up our fruit and enjoy the bounty. But there are a few that are very confusing at face value.

Take a persimmon for example. Here it is called a Caqui (ka-key). There are a few different kinds, and I like them all. But only when they are not too ripe. It is the James Bond of fruit. (Which means dad, it is a fruit in disguise...) It tastes like a peachy apple with the consistency of a nectarine. But it looks like a tomato. Here is a picture.

See? A tomato; although not very red. If you eat them when they are really ripe they actually have the consistency of a tomato and are not my favorite. Grainy tomato-y pulp that tastes like a peachy apple, it confuses my tastes buds. Plus, I have consistency issues.

See if you can guess this one.

By George, that must be a lime! Actually it is not. But if it was it would be a lime on steroids! This is an orange. Yes, I know it is not orange but green. But trust me, it is an orange. And it makes the best juice you have ever tasted. It is probably the kind of orange that Tropicana buys from Brazil to add it their juices. And it is probably one of the kinds that has the pesticide Carbendazim on it, which is banned in the US, and was found on Brazilian oranges imported to the US in February. But hey, maybe that is why they are so delicious? So far, after two years of drinking fresh squeezed OJ we do not yet have a third arm growing out of our backs. No worries.

I hope I can find fruit I have learned to love back the the States. I will have to search high and low for them, but hopefully I will be successful. Of course, the oranges will be easy...