Ripe guava:
It’s has been a while since we saw and had a ripe guava. 6 years to be exact. They were not in season during our trips to Nandyala. But we got lucky in Toronto, Canada. Local Indian stores were carrying this precious Indian fruit and the real miracle is at a reasonable price.
One of life lessons, I learned is, its not good for health to feel nostalgic about home foods. But this fruit with its incredible fragrance, with just right amount of ripeness brought out symptoms of nostalgia. Eyes misted, mouth watered, brain couldn’t get enough of its smell and heart wanted more… .I don’t know when I’d have a taste of guava again, but for now, I enjoyed the fruit, feeling nostalgically delirious.
This cherished fruit with unique taste and fabulous fragrance when ripe is called Jamapandu in Telugu and ‘Guava, Amrud, Koiya Palam, Perakka and Peyara’ in other Indian languages. Ripening process makes the fruit go from hard to tender and skin colour also changes, from a shade of green to a shade of yellow. We usually eat the whole fruit including the skin and the tiny seeds, when ripe. Just sprinkle some salt, to give that perfect taste of salty sweetness. Pleasant but not flashy, both in looks and taste -that’s how I describe guava.
I am glad I was able to capture the image of ripe guava for my Indian kitchen series. Even though I gave up the idea of hosting ‘Indian kitchen’ here on my blog (very time consuming), instead, I created a Flickr group to share images of Indian ingredients and utensils so that food bloggers and foodies who don’t have blogs, but interested to participate, can share images. It can also used as a group pool, so that whenever we need a photo of some kitchen thing, we can link to the image in Flickr set, instead of doing google or yahoo image search. If you are interested, join the group and share your images of Indian kitchen.
Definitely brings up old memories!
I remember that when I was in highschool, during ‘recess’, we will go in school compound where there will be street carts and they will sell these Amruds. They will cut it in 4 pieces, add that ‘masala’ and there you go, your snack is ready!
BTW, you take very nice shots. Do you use tripod?
Comment by JD — January 9, 2006 @ 9:46 am
I know. Good old days!
Thanks JD for your comments and for the vote.
I do use tripod sometimes, but not as frequently as I should.:)
Comment by Indira — January 9, 2006 @ 9:54 am
An absolute wonderful fruit. Now my mouthz watering ….. good work Indira…You have been a vivid writer.
Comment by S — January 9, 2006 @ 11:02 am
Havent been lucky enough to find any guavas here… lucky you, Indira!
Comment by Shammi — January 9, 2006 @ 11:04 am
I just tagged you for a meme. If you want,if you don’t ignore it!
Comment by Ilva — January 9, 2006 @ 11:31 am
Indira,have you tasted the ‘Anakapalle’variety which smaller in size with pinkish red flesh and very sweet? Guava is one of my fav fruits…):)
Indira says…
I vaguely remember the taste, Sailaja. It was long time ago, when we were children, that I had a chance to taste Anakapalle variety.
Comment by Sailaja — January 9, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
Yummy…my local Korean store sells really raw ones (which you can sink your teeth into and feel proud of your cnanines/molars etc.) for 4$/lb. A bit steep but totally worth the price. I also love the ones that turn pink and squishy inside. And here’s another word for them – “peyara”..that’s Bengali for guava. Lovely post.
Comment by anyesha — January 10, 2006 @ 9:04 am
These are readily available in the Bay Area in California. Try India Cash and Carry in Sunnyvale if you’re in the area (though those I ate in Udaipur last week were better). 🙂
Comment by a geek — January 10, 2006 @ 9:09 am
We used to have these picked right off the trees for evening snacks after school. When I went on vacation they were sadly out of season.
Comment by Gini — January 10, 2006 @ 9:25 am
Anyesha… Thanks for the Bengali word for guava. I am going to add it in my post.
Geek..lucky for you! Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll remember that.
Gini… I’m glad to see you back here. 🙂 I hope you had a fabulous time in India.
Comment by Indira — January 10, 2006 @ 1:23 pm
Hi Indira,
Happy New year and Happy Makara sankaranti to you.I have been enjoying your site from last month.It is very very interesting.It impels me to start my own foodsite.By the way,Gauva is one of my favorite fruits.We have a hybrid tree which bears very tasty fruit with less fruits in green stage itself.But here in USA, you get gauva paste in canned storage.Hope you like my first comment and will be joining your crowd with my own food blog shortly.
Warm wishes.
Comment by R.L. — January 10, 2006 @ 1:41 pm
It surely brought back all of my home memories too. We have a few gauva trees at our farm house; all of which bear different gauva varieties. This mentioned kind is the most tastiest ones. Also there is one seedless variety. Just sprinkle a little salt and black pepper powder and see the divine taste difference. It is soooo nutritious as well. Thank you for the post Indira.
Comment by VK Narayanan — January 10, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
Hello R.L, thanks for the wishes and wishing you the same.
A new foodblog, that’s exciting. Looking forward to it and please send me the link. Thanks!
VKN… Just little bit of salt and pepper sprinkled on guava, turns it into a memorable taste. I agree.
You are a lucky one to have such bountiful farmhouse!
Comment by Indira — January 10, 2006 @ 2:46 pm
Hmmm, delicious! Guava, or guayaba as we call it in many Latin American countries, is one of my favorite fruits. I specially love it’s perfume 🙂
Comment by melissa_cookingdiva — January 12, 2006 @ 12:16 pm
Just had green guavas (slightly unripe) last night with cayenne pepper and kala namak.
Absolutely divine !
Comment by Krithika — January 13, 2006 @ 11:35 am
JAM OF THE FRUIT
Comment by LEENA P. RAJ. — January 17, 2006 @ 6:18 am
Hmmmm…. I have very specific preferences when it comes to guava. Can’t eat the ripe ones, Absolutely hate them… But the raw ones with some chilli powder and salt…..yummmmm!
Grandma has a new guava tree (Sh always had one when we grew up) and everytime I go home, she gets me and my sisters very specific guavas – Ripe ones for her and raw for me.
Indira replies…
You know, Kay, at first I thought you were not a desi by your name. You must laughed out loud, reading my earlier replies to your questions. 🙂 (that is before you started blogging.)
I prefer, like your sister, ripe ones. That’s why I wrote this love letter to ripe guava, 🙂 a miracle if you ask me, to find these here.
Comment by Kay — January 19, 2006 @ 4:34 pm
Aha! I can almost smell the guava. Do you always eat them this ripe or force of circumstances? 🙂
Indira replies…
Hi Karen… I love ripe ones, its really a miracle that I found decent, ripe ones here, faraway from home. (and they are imported from India). There are some other varieties of guava avialable here in Chinese stores, but they are like so hard, try as you may, never get ripe. I think all the chemical spraying stops them from ripening, I think.
Comment by Karen — January 19, 2006 @ 5:39 pm
Oh dear! And I thought you were extremely patient in explainng things. 😉 Well, I’m a desi in many ways and ‘not’ in some ways. I’m from South India (Tamilnadu). Some Americans find it difficult to get my name right, so, I ask them to call me by my Initial ‘K’ and that became ‘Kay’ for ease.
Comment by Kay — January 19, 2006 @ 9:40 pm
I desperate need GUAVA branches to make my medicinal tea. I use to have this fruit tree in South but not here close to Chicago.
I ask for someone to help me to find these branches, I am read to pay for costs and shipping to ZIP 61021, Illinois – USA.
PLEASE PLEASE, HELP ME !!!
Zizi
saquaalegre@dsl.essex1.com
Comment by Zizi — August 3, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
could you please tell me if i can buy guava leaves in the east end of toronto if so where. thank you
sharon
Comment by sharon atkinson — September 17, 2008 @ 12:59 pm