Catalina and the Cherimoya

Last time I was in Chile my hostmom asked me if there was anything special I wanted to see, do, or eat while I was there. I told her I wanted to eat a real live cherimoya. A cherimoya is a tropical fruit that I had never heard of until arriving in Chile, and even then, it was elusive. I tasted the flavor in ice cream, yogurt, popsicles, etc, but never had even seen the real fruit. So last time I was in Chile, it was summer and my hostmom went out in search of cherimoya to no avail. There were none to be found as it is apparently a delicate fruit that is ripe in the early summer months (late November, early December in Chile).

This evening while roaming around the plain old grocery store (Jewel for those of you who know) I stumbled across a basket of this UGLY fruit labeled Cherimoya!! I couldn't believe my eyes, and on top of that, today is Chilean Independence Day!! It was destiny. The label on the cherimoya said "ripe when slightly soft," so I picked what I thought would be a good one, then picked another just in case. At the checkout, they rang up at $3.99 a piece, and I thought to myself, these better be DELICIOUS!

But when I got home, I realized I had no clue what to actually do with the thing. I looked up online how to prepare them, and it told me to halve it lengthwise and then scoop the creamy, delicious flesh out with a spoon. So I did, and despite the many, enormous black seeds, it was good and so fragrant! Its about the size of a large pear, and tastes a bit like fresh papaya, but is super creamy. I ate half and put the other half in the freezer to eat like ice cream tomorrow. But I still have this whole other cherimoya. Maybe I'll make a cherimoya smoothy? What a great Chilean day!