Fruit

Went to the Lisa Taniguchi solo show opening last night at Astro.

https://www.lisataniguchi.com/the-things-we-tell-ourselves External Link • lisataniguchi.com

Lisa’s show was great.

The tufted rug pieces were unique. The one pictured at left in brown that is hardest to see in this picture has the characters for coffee. A Z-Space purchase?

Yes she is a sign painter!

We met Adrian and Paulina there along with Toni, their dog. Toni has some health issues and is in decline, but he’s my buddy and Astro is pet friendly and everyone came over to give him pets.

We went next door to Nana’s Green Tea afterwards and had some sweets.

Rachael got the yuzu cheesecake and I got a giant black sesame parfait to share with everyone. My picture didn’t really turn out so here’s the menu item page.

https://sevenleavestea.com/menu/black-sesame-shiratama-parfait/ External Link • sevenleavestea.com

And we sat and talked about fruit.

The black sesame paste and black sesame ice cream reminded Adrian about a special type of fruit, sapote, and the dessert he had as a child in Mexico.

The canonical Wikipedia page points out that it is used across a bunch of plants as common names and has a picture of the black sapote.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapote External Link • en.m.wikipedia.org

It also points out the Nahuatl aka Aztec word tzapotl.

Here are a couple of other links talking about the different kinds.

https://www.trygreenrecipes.com/types-of-sapote-fruits/ External Link • trygreenrecipes.com

Black sapote was the one he had in mind. Related to persimmons.

The flesh of the black sapote looks like chocolate pudding and has a mild, sweet flavor. The texture is soft and creamy, which makes it perfect for desserts such as ice cream, smoothies or pies. What do black sapotes taste like? The smooth flesh tastes like a mix of cocoa and caramel. 

And then mamey sapote is the other one he remembers

This fruit has a brown, rough exterior that can be tough to peel due to its softness. Its interior is soft, creamy, and bright orange (salmon) in color. The flesh of the mamey sapote has a sweet flavor, often compared to sweet potatoes with hints of caramel and brown sugar. 

Here’s another article talking about zapote negro along with a simple dessert recipe at the end:

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/food/taste-of-mexico-zapote-negro/ External Link • mexiconewsdaily.com

In case you’re wondering, these fruits are in season in February in Mexico 😁

A book that Rachael found many years ago that we both enjoyed reading is The Fruit Hunters:

https://bookhive.buzz/books/bk_0FslZVyqBKyWoRayeKh3 External Link • bookhive.buzz

It goes into everything around fruits, including import laws and ancient history.

For example, that apples and pears in ancient times were more like the quince - not edible directly off the tree, not sweet, and needing to be cooked / processed before being edible.

Recommended!

This is the kind of post I would put in my FoodWiki - cataloging ingredients and Wikipedia references. Being able to link to zapote / sapote / tzapotl as aliases to the same page. Having a blog style post like this one but also wiki / note pages for re-use of things in my collection. And back links!

Regardless, nice to have a space for personal writing.