Cook With Us Homework - Unusual Fruit Where I come from

Being an obedient little girl...ok... I was one a very long time ago... but today I’ve been given homework by Miss Cookwithus so have to knuckle down and start writing my essay.

The theme is an unusual fruit or vegetable that may be specific to my country or just be unusual; or write a restaurant/ food review , and also tell everyone a little about where I come from.

I will start with the latter - I live in laid-back Durban, a popular holiday destination in a sub-tropical coastal city on the east coast of South Africa.

A misconception I'd like to clear up from the start is that we do not have wild animals roaming the streets, not in any city or town in South Africa. Wildlife is only found in game parks or remote areas nowadays.

Giraffe at Ithala Game Reserve, Northern Kwazulu Natal

Our country is often portrayed in a bad light by the press and as we all know, good news does not sell so I'm sure you only hear about violent protests marches and other bad things that I believe are relics from the old Apartheid system which came to an end in 1994, and left behind many inequalities. With a government not delivering on its promises, the discontent and injustices will resonate for years to come still!

However, there is much good happening here that does not make the news, and I do share those from time to time in my posts.

South Africa is a wonderfully diverse country with a rich history, culture and amazing natural splendour - the best beaches, breathtaking mountain ranges, endless deserts, exciting game parks.

Young would be-surfers learning the ropes

Sand artists at Durban North beach

Umdloti Beach on the North Coast of Kwazulu Natal

Central Drakensberg mountain range - Champagne Castle

Misty mountains at Ithala Game Reserve

We have 11 official languages and with such diverse people lends itself to an exciting mix of food cultures.

My city Durban has a large concentration of people from Indian descent so of course Durban is known for its curry, with Bunny Chow being the most famous.
Ok, no need to be horrified - no bunnies go into this hollowed out loaf of bread filled with spicy curries like - Mixed Vegetables, Broad Beans, Sugar Beans, Lamb, Chicken, Chicken & Prawn - to name but a few.

Bunny Chow I made for Steemit Sandwich Contest a while back - they're usually way more spicy than this version

Thought I would add a tale to my story - what do I do now?

I am in my Autumn years, and hubby and I run our own little BnB called Lily’s Cottage since I retired from the corporate world as a Geographic Info Services Technician. Hubby still takes on the odd bit of Civil Engineering design works, but is kept very busy with our little business as well.

I simply love my new job as we get to meet the nicest and most interesting people from near and far with the added bonus of supplementing our income.

Guests come for all kinds of reasons - holidays, business, training, seminars, sport, family illness or funerals plus many expats of late visiting family.

As we live close to a river, we do have some wildlife here at home - vervet monkeys troop through the garden mornings and late afternoons, foraging for food, plus we have many species of garden birds.

We have giant Papaya trees and our wildlife feast on the fruit - we only pick the fruit on the lower branches and leave the rest to them.

Vervet monkey leader enjoying super sweet Papaya

The three monkeys sitting in our wild Plum Tree

Knysna Turaco or Loerie in flight showing off its stunning red wings

The unusual fruit I have chosen to tell you about is not indigenous to South Africa but has acclimatized very well here in our sub-tropical region; and that is the Tamarillo.
We have five of these smallish trees in our garden, and I will show you photos taken when they were bearing fruit last summer.

Info from wikipedia

The tamarillo is a small tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae (the nightshade family). It is best known as the species that bears the tamarillo, an egg-shaped edible fruit. It is also known as the tree tomato, tomate andino, tomate serrano, tomate de yuca, sachatomate, berenjena, tamamoro, and tomate de árbol in South America. They are popular globally, especially in New Zealand, Australia, and America.
The fruits are egg-shaped and about 4-10 centimeters long. Their color varies from yellow and orange to red and almost purple. Sometimes they have dark, longitudinal stripes. Red fruits are more acetous, yellow and orange fruits are sweeter. The flesh has a firm texture and contains more and larger seeds than a common tomato. The fruits are very high in vitamins and iron and low in calories (only about 40 calories per fruit).

Image credit

The fruit is delicious and tastes like a blend of Passion Fruit and Guava.
I’ve used it in Fruit Salad and eaten it on its own - one scoops the pulp and seeds out, cannot eat the skin which is too hard. The seeds are soft, almost like Tomato Seeds and not as hard as Guava seeds.
This season we should get more fruit as the trees are bigger so I will try and make chutney or jams with them.

I'm really looking forward to the challenges from @cookwithus, cannot wait to see what the team consisting of @chefsteve, @offoodandart and @pandamama, have up their sleeves for Season Three :)

Hope to see new steemians join the @cookwithus community - you're sure to make a friend or two plus learn some new tricks from some of our amazing chefs!

Original Content by @lizelle
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