sunrise papayas and ackee fruit
Just back from Jamaica, with a serious papaya withdrawal.
I though I liked papayas before going to Jamaica, but the fruit I ate there just changed my whole perspective about the specie. I ate as much as I could but sometime the fruit lady couldn't get them for the day (or the market price was too expensive for her), and I can tell you that that day was a bad day. The difference between the papayas I have eaten here and there were the size (unlike the semi-tasteless ginormous ones sold in most stores in MTL, these were small, almost the size of mango), the color (an amazing deep orange), of course the taste (much complex, sweet but an underlying pleasant bitterness, but not "bitter") and smell (again more complex). My research points me to that these are the type "sunrise". Any luck for finding this type in town? They looked more perishable than the snowshoe size ones, so would it be that they are impossible to export? Are they as elusive as the Alfonso mangoes?
My other obsession became the ackee fruit, sauteed with the saltfish for breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night snack and everything in between.
Can anyone point me to a place to procure these ingredients? Even better, is there a place that serves ackee and saltfish in town? I don't think L Corridor has it in their menu, but I am this close to hitting there for a patty fix and when I go there I will ask for suggestions.
emerilcantcook
May 09, 2008 09:44AM
Following my own post...
i came across some Sunrise papayas (imported from Belize) at Bala Alimentation on Parc, next to Fruiterie Mile End. Although there were many signs that they were prematurely harvested (green and rock hard fruit, but lots of soft "spoilage" spots in some), I decided to give it a try. I gave the fruit a few days in the fruit bowl to get the flesh mature a little bit, and then cut one. Nope, it doesn't cut it. I think the fruit was harvested so early that the flesh didn't develop at all and while it was soft, the taste was also somewhat potatoey. So the softness was perhaps micro-spoilage rather than true maturity. It also lacked the purplish/orange intensity that is special to the specie. Well bummer. I will still keep my hopes up, slightly.
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That's a real bummer. I guess you'll just have to go back to Jamaica :)
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