Foodie Friday: Sugar Apple

Two Beginning Caveats

First, if I thought I didn’t need a recipe for the last Foodie Friday, I certainly don’t for this post!  I’m not even MAKING anything – merely enjoying what already exists!  That said, because it is so very Bahamian, so very Better Life, and so very edible, I decided to include this as a Foodie Friday post. 🙂

Second, my hearty enthusiasm for Sugar Apple is hugely significant when taken in context . . . While I try to eat plenty fruit (and vegetables), I am not a natural lover of such things, like some of my friends.  It is a conscious effort for me to choose to eat a sweet piece of fruit when a sweet piece of cake is sooooooo much tastier to me!  But, not so good for my waistline or health, so fruit it is (usually).  Thus, when I discovered that Sugar Apple tastes like a creamy decadent treat, trumpets blared!  (I also decided NOT to research the sugar content and chalk it up to all-fruit-must-be-good-for-me!)

With those caveats out of the way, let’s begin… 🙂

Sugar Apple Trees and Fruit

Recently, Beau and I visited a nearby island to spend the afternoon with friends and family.  While there, some of the women were snacking on pieces of fruit and offered me one.  It was a Sugar Apple.  I’d heard of them before, but never actually eaten one.  They showed me how to break it open and eat the sweet flesh, spitting out the seeds.

Well.  That was delicious!  Beau came outside and observed this, teasing me about how furiously I was digging into the fruit.  Later that afternoon, we visited other friends, and Beau went around to the back of their house.  When he returned, he had a bagful of sugar apples for me!

Back home, I set them out in our kitchen to finish ripening.

Sugar apples.

The one in my hand below is perfectly formed.

Sugar apples at home.

But another one was ripest and ready to eat!

Perfectly soft and ready to eat sugar apple.

I held it in my hands, gently squeezed and twisted to break it open, exposing the milky white flesh of the sugar apple.

Sweet and creamy sugar apple.

I leaned over and picked off one of the little segments with my teeth, savoring the sweet flesh and spitting the seed into a bowl (since I was inside).

Sugar apple and seed.

The segments are small, with a seed in almost every one.  The texture is soft and creamy, and the sweetness is truly fabulous and sugary.

Sugar apple flesh, around a dark seed on the right.

I happily continued to pick, chew, savor and spit!

Sugar apple decimation in process.

Of course, as always, Angel is never far away when there is any activity in the kitchen.

Angel, relaxed but attentive.

I finished off the first half, yummy!  About 12 seeds in my bowl, and the next “half” was even larger.

First half gone!

So I headed outside to eat the rest of it where I could scatter the seeds.

Sugar apple by the sea.

I stood on our back deck in the shade at the end of a hot afternoon.  Enjoying the breeze through the trees and the always-spectacular view of the sea, I happily sucked away on my latest treat.

Leaning over the railing, I spit the seeds “into the bush” and around an area where we are growing native pepper and other plants.  Perhaps it will “catch” and I’ll enjoy a sugar apple tree of my own!

Into the Bush

Angel and Kitty hung out on the deck with me, peering into the bush as the seeds went flying.  Kitty “lives” around the back deck area – except when he boldly sneaks into the house – and Angel loves to roam within the deck’s confines and soak in the sun.  (Milo was off playing with his buddy and missed the action this afternoon.)

Angel & Kitty

With the sugar apple finished, I headed back inside to wash my sticky hands and get back to the business of my day!

Have you ever had a Sugar Apple?  What do you do for little breaks (or snacks) in the middle of your day?