Ms. D: My Favourite Fruits in Colombia #1

This post is the first in series of posts on Ms. D’s favourite fruits found throughout Colombia.

Colombia has an extraordinary amount of biodiversity, meaning that not only is it lush and beautiful, but is also home to many fruits and vegetables that I have never seen or even heard of before. I always want to share them with everyone at home, but I can’t bring them home in my suitcase. So I will begin this series by featuring maybe my two favourite fruits I have discovered here.

Mangostino

This fruit is unlike any I have ever seen before. The skin is a deep purple, and is extremely thick. It must be cut all around with a knife, and pulled in half. Inside, it is sweet, and almost a bit milky. It is separated into about six sections, similar to an orange, with one of the sections being larger and containing a pit. Many Colombians seem to not even know this fruit, but it is one of our favourites.

Ms. D and the rare mangostino fruit.

Grenadilla

Unless someone shows you, it is tough to figure out how to eat this fruit. It is too hard to cut with a knife, and not possible to peel. The only way to get inside is it to crack it open like an egg.

A girl I met from Ireland told me she opened this fruit, but did not eat it because she thought it had gone bad. It is orange on the outside, but grey and slimy on the inside. It is kind of like a pomegranate in the sense that it has many individual pods with seeds inside each one. This fruit is the perfect addition to a fruit salad or as a quick no-utensils required snack.

Grenadilla.