Thai Fruits: Custard Apple

Here’s another of my favorite fruits, the custard apple. Just look at that lumpy, scaly outside, like the skin of a frog.

I’ve seen people go at this one with a knife, but where’s the fun in that? Each scale easily lifts off the fruit, revealing soft white flesh underneath.

The custard apple is sweet and juicy, with a slightly grainy texture like that of a soft ripe pear. It is almost purely sweet, but not cloyingly so. Each surface scale covers a small geometric section of flesh which separates easily from the rest of the fruit and surrounds a smooth and very hard black seed. I swear the seeds are so firm and heavy, they could easily be mistaken for pebbles.

So while I don’t see why it’s called a custard apple (in fact it seems as dissimilar from custard as it does from apples), this is yet another favorite fruit.

I wonder how many times I can call a fruit my favorite before I lose all credibility?