Tropical Fruit - Caimito

My mercancia, Rita, who stops by several times a week with buckets of fresh goodies recently had a number of caimitos (pronounced “kai-mee-toe,” with an emphasis on the “mee”). I bought several so that I could tell you about them.





















Caimitos are relatives of Sapotes. The skins are tough and the colors range from green to purple. The pulp is white to purple, soft, and milky surrounding several glossy dark seeds. When the fruit is cut in half between the stem and end the seeds are seen to radiate outwardly from the center, producing a star-shaped pattern (which I unfortunately don't show, and que lastima, we've already eaten the caimitos).

Do not bite directly into a caimito as the skin contains an unpleasant latex; The white sappy latex is will make your lips sticky or gummy, like tacky glue. The tacky coating will go away after a few lip smacks. Select a fruit that is a bit soft for best flavor. When still a bit on the firm or under-ripe side there is a drying alum property that I personally don’t appreciate. I typically slice them in half, between stem and end and scoop out the soft pulp with a spoon, discarding the seeds.

Another way to serve the fruit is to cut around the middle, or score the skin completely, then holding the fruit stem-end down, twisting or squeezing the top gently, the flesh will be felt to free itself, and should pull away.

In trying to describe the flavor I am unsuccessful to come up with a common taste comparison, except perhaps slightly like a grape, but not as sweet. A caimito tastes like a caimito. Generally the fruit is eaten fresh, although it may be an ingredient in fruit salads and sorbets. Mixing the cut up fruit with sour orange juice is quite refreshing. Caimito’s are nutritious, containing moderate amounts of calcium, phosphorus, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and are a good source of anti-oxidants..

From Wikipedia
Chrysophyllum cainito is a tropical tree of the family Sapotaceae, native to the lowlands of Central America and the West Indies. It grows rapidly and reaches 20 m in height.
It has numerous common names including cainito, caimito, star apple, golden leaf tree, abiaba, pomme du lait, estrella, milk fruit and aguay. It is also known by the synonym Achras cainito.
The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple oval, entire, 5-15 cm long; the underside shines with a golden color when seen from a distance. The tiny flowers are purplish white and have a sweet fragrant smell. The tree is also hermaphroditic (self-fertile).

...after Carnaval

That's how most of our statements end during Carnaval.

Carnaval, as much fun as it is really puts a damper on many regular activities. The parade route is barricaded along the sides, and most cross streets are closed off. The parade route includes a major portion of the route you must take to cross Paseo de Montejo, a major street for going North or South here. So inevitably you'll hear people saying they are going to do things, or go somewhere...after Carnaval.

This years Carnaval theme is/was Un Carnaval de Pelicula aka movies; so many of the costumes and floats were movie themes. Today is the final parade "la batalla de las flores", "the battle of the flowers", it will be the most well attended. And tonight after the parade the street parties will be longer and a bit more rowdy than the other nights. Tomorrow they will burn Juan Carnaval at the Municipal Building and then Carnaval will be over for another year.

We attended the Regional parade last night, after a happy hour at friends. The desfile Regional is always one of my favorites. All the traditional costuming and dance with just enough of the jiggly girls and throwing of stuff into the crowd. Friends had purchased 'palco's' for many of the parades, and included varying groups of friends to sit with them on different evenings. Palcos are groups of 8 assigned seats, in prominent locations along the parade route.

I took pictures and will offer a brief glimpse -

Puebla, Iglesia de Santo Domingo y Capilla del Rosario

There are so many churches in Mexico.

They are vital to the framework of Mexican life. Here in Merida they are a bit more unpretentious than in say Puebla. We saw quite a few churches, chapels, and convents on this trip. They included some of the most incredible craftsmanship that we have ever seen; And the most gold leaf. They absolutely glow in the dark from the amount of gold leaf, because of this the natural light that enters through the tambor style windows negates the need for daytime artificial lighting.
There were a number of members of our group that were offended but the ostentatiousness of the wealth displayed in the churches. The comments centered on how many people could be helped with the money used to decorate and maintain these incredible buildings.

AND the churches are owned by the government; it's the government that maintains them, not the church.

The first, and therefore the most startling (for us) church we entered on our trip was La Iglesia de Santo Domingo y Capilla del Rosario in Puebla de los Angeles, Puebla; construction started in the mid 16th century and was not completed until 1690, nearly a century later. Both it's Baroque entrance and main alter date from 1688.

The statue of Our Lady of the Rosary is sculpted from cypress wood and it thought to be one of the finest examples of colonial art in Mexico.

Our Lady of the Rosary altar

This is the main altar

A detail fragment

One of the many additional altars in the church



details from the baroque facade

Oaxaca - Weaver's Studio

I am being harassed unmercifully by family and friends for info/fotos of our recent Puebla/Oaxaca trip. I have over 700 images, so I've decided to tease you bit by bit.

The Weaver's Studio we visited was really interesting and I have gone through that group of fotos; so here goes -

Tejidos Zapoteco
Avenida Juarez #100
Teotitla del Valle CP70420
Oaxaca, Mexico
tel fax 01 95-24-40-72
no website currently available

This family has a large airy open house/studio, they live and work here. This is a family business, everyone is involved, even the kids have small looms and make coasters and small weavings to practice with simple designs. They have gone back to the traditional methods and card, spin, dye, and weave on a vast number of wooden looms.

They are using the old traditional elements in the creation of the dyes for their wool; bugs, minerals, plants, etc. The demonstration on the dye colors was really interesting - first crush some bugs, OK very specific bugs and get one color - then add lime juice for another color, then a mineral pigment for a different, then baking soda for something else.

And of course they selected the youngest prettiest member of our groups hand to use as the demonstration pallet...

The shorter fellow is the weaver and gave the demo, and very pleasant funny guy. The taller fellow is Sergio, our guide and interpreter for the trip. He sets up all of our side trips and helps us with all the 'stuff' that can happen. He also acts as interpreter because not all of us are fluent in Spanish.

Some of the dyed wools

Weavers Working

A few additional weaver tools

Beautiful examples of their rugs and wall hangings

And of course, the altar

Here is some additional info on Weaving from From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warp and weft in plain weaving

In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn under and over parallel warp yarns to create a fabric. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn", and in India, it is referred to as "baana". " Baana" word has been derived from another hindi word "bun na" or "bunai" which means making with threads or strings, as done in cane weaving and other forms of primitive weaving techniques.

The weft is a thread or yarn of spun fibre. The original fibre was wool, flax or cotton. Nowadays, many synthetic fibers are used in weaving. Because the weft does not have to be stretched in the way that the warp is, it can generally be less strong.

The weft is threaded through the warp using a shuttle. Hand looms were the original weaver's tool, with the shuttle being threaded through alternately raised warps by hand. Inventions during the 18th century spurred the Industrial Revolution, and the hand loom became the more robust spinning frame with the flying shuttle speeding up production of cloth, and then the water frame using water power to automate the weaving process. The power loom followed in the 19th century, when steam power was harnessed.

Immigration and Understanding

LaGringa blogs about her life, and situations in her life in Honduras.

In a recent post "Readers Made My Day", she touched on Immigration issues.

This is a touchy topic, especially for those of us in/from the USofA. Husband and I know people; friends and family with a slightly 'What's NewsWorthy' view on Immigration. Some form their opinions solely on one side of the issue without really knowing or understanding all the nuances that accompany it.


The most profound and poignant statement LaGringa made, and the one that resonated strongly with me is:

"It's easy to have a black and white opinion on immigration in the abstract. It's a lot harder when you know the human beings involved."

It really is easy to be callous and cavalier when you or someone you know is not involved, when it's just an abstract issue, but put a friend or lovedone's face on the topic and your views will likely change.

I do believe there should be a registry, or a way for workers to easily and legally enter the USofA. I think the immigrants; whether Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadorian, Korean, or whatever provide valuable services and that the USofA would suffer tremendously without them.

Well enough of this for now, I could go on for quite a bit longer as I do have opinions, but this is enough to give us all something to ponder isn't it?

2nd Annual Latin American Bloggers Meet & Greet!

The 2nd Annual Latin American Bloggers Meet & Greet is just around the corner.

Theresa has arranged an action packed few days; you can get info now (like the dates) from her Blog.

I'm sure you'll want to bookmark it and check back frequently to get all the updates And to see what else she is up to.

Back from Puebla and Oaxaca

Just got in from our trip, and instead of putting stuff away, doing laundry, studying for
Spanish class tomorrow, or trying to come up with something for dinner - I am drinking beer and checking email, Facebook, and blogging. What a slouch!

Trip was action packed 7 days. Lots of pics, lots of stories, and a really great time. We flew in to Mexico City and then bused to our locations.

This morning coming out of Oaxaca City to get to the airport at Mexico City we were delayed a bit because of the protest/strike. Many large vehicles were not running, and were lining the main streets of Oaxaca City (buses, combis, taxis, construction vehicles, etc) to protest the rise in fuel prices. Lucky for us our bus was still running, but it was something to see the solidarity of all the vehicles, drivers, families, and supporters out there letting the government know how they feel.

Puebla de los Angeles was nice, but I like Oaxaca better; actually I like some of the communities around Oaxaca City the most. Very rural, agricultural, lots of open space, and oh the mountain vistas.

Lots of churches on the agenda, along with several arqueological ruins, food always on the menu, and oh the shopping.

More on everything later. I need to get the pictures loaded to the computer. Umm, the mezcal production tour and tasting, the weavers studio demonstration, some many cool things!!!!

Merida Insider Update

Hubby and I are currently on a little trip in Oaxaca, along with travelmates Bob and Sally.

Well I´ve been given the official ´Go Ahead´ by Merida Insider´s MexicoBob to announce that he plans to rebirth Merida Insider. It will change to Yucatan Insider and become more encompassing of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Just wanted to shoot this out quickly to let everyone know.

Learning Spanish - Aprendizaje de Español

Well I started another Spanish class today!

I am now in Basico 3, yes, I know you are all impressed, only one more level in Basico, then 3 levels of Intermediate, then Advanced - WOOOOOHOOOO!!
The classes are through UNAM which a University out of Mexico City. This tends to make the examples in the book interesting, as well as some of the pronunciations, as they relate to Mexico City and use the Nahuatl pronunciations rather than our Mayan pronunciations. Sort of like sending someone from Savannah Georgia up to Hoboken New Jersey. Sure the words are the same, it's just tricky to figure them out.

I am also taking a Cooking Class through IMSS, which is Mexico's Social Security branch. They offer a lot of classes to help the citizens with things like improving their health; cooking, physical fiteness, mental gymnastics, self-defense, etc. The thing for me about the cooking class isn't the cooking, but that it is attended by mainly Mexicans, and therefore is entirely in Spanish. We foreigners are able to attend, we just don't.

It's just too dificult to live here and not be able to do simple things-today I asked a bus driver in what I know was correct Spanish, and I'm told I have a very good 'local' accent if he passed down calle 70 through calle 77. He kept looking at me like I was speaking Martian. In fact people in hearing range repeated exactly what I said back to him, he still didn't get it, well maybe it wasn't me after all.
So my quest to speak Spanish continues...