Quenepa

It’s pronounced keh-neh-peh, or close enough. The fruit from a tree in the Carribbean with a strong, thin green skin, a pink-ish flesh and a large pit that really takes up most of the inside. The fun part is that you bite onto the fruit and the skin kind of cracks and pops open in your mouth. Then you proceed to suck the flesh off of the pit. While I was searching for a photo to include in this post I found out that according to Caribbean folk wisdom (especially in Jamaica), girls learn the art of kissing by eating the sweet flesh of this fruit.

We were lucky enough to stumble upon this exotic little lime-colored fruit while on a quick little trip to Ponce, Puerto Rico which just so happens to be a hot spot for Quenepa. Who knew. There were street vendors everywhere carrying these huge bunches of what looked a little bit like big green grapes. They were walking up to people in cars exchanging the bunches for a few dollars. It definitely piqued our curiosity.

It has started to amaze me how many fruits I really haven’t tried. Actually, after that trip, how many fruits that I don’t even know exist. It’s a big, big world!

[Photo courtesy Felicita M.]