Passionfruit — yes, that’s what these are. I am in no mood for toying around, so I will go right out and say that this variety produces the largest fruit of all passionfruit species, is more acidic, and elongated rather than round. It turns yellow when ripe.
Locals call it pasyonarya, but you may know it as granadilla. I was told that, when immature, it is cooked as a vegetable, but both Ma and I found it had an aftertaste we could not quite get past. Maybe it was the acidity, mild as that was.
So I thought: why not exploit that facet? I grated the flesh, which had the look and texture of green papaya. Atchara it was, then (I did not bother to squeeze out the juice out as I would have with papaya). Considering that a medium-size green papaya costs ₱30 these days (“Eh,” a fellow customer had said. “Papaya’s for sale now?” — and she was not referring to a season), a definite advantage of granadilla is that it is underutilized around these parts, hence you are likely to get it for free if you can find it. What’s more, this climbing plant bears fruits year-round.
Passionfruit pulp, or that stuff that coats its seeds, is mildly tart and salty. The flavor is more concentrated the nearer the fruit is to maturity, so for my next experiment, I chose passionfruit that was almost ripe. I boiled the seeds with an equal amount of water for 20 minutes. The strained liquid was perfect for sinigang. The following day, I used it to altogether sub for vinegar in inún-unán, and get this: the dish earned a compliment from Pa! It was the first time he had anything good to say of inún-unán I had made, so that counted for a lot.
This particular variety of passionfruit was brought to my attention by Kap. On top of plying us with native chicken, freshwater snails, and all manner of fruit, vegetable, and lagutmon (rootcrop) currently in season that grow in his mountain barangay, he delights in presenting me with edibles wild, strange, and/or unfamiliar, like the taro-looking dalilí. On this trip, I found one of each. More in upcoming posts.
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