Sapodilla

Manilkara zapota · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

The sapodilla is a round, russet-brown tropical fruit with a thin, sandy-rough skin and soft, granular flesh that tastes like brown sugar, malt and pear soaked in caramel. Known across Asia as chikoo or sapota and through the Americas as nispero or chicozapote, it is eaten ripe and yielding, scooped from the skin with a spoon. The tree is famous for a second gift: its milky latex, chicle, was the original base of chewing gum.

Picking a good onedrag

Ripe, yielding, sweet at the scarSplit, weeping, winey

Fully ripe and softeningSoft right through but still holding its shape, the malt smell now carrying. As sweet as it gets: eat it with a spoon, or blend it with lime and coconut before it slumps.Eat in a day or two

SkinDeeper brown and dulling, the scurf all gone

The squeezeSoft right through, but still holds its shape

Stem scarScar dry and flush, still no milk at a press

Smell at the scarFuller and maltier, carrying a step away

What to look for, from ripe, yielding, sweet at the scar to split, weeping, winey.

Preparing