Fall Food: Paw Paws

[mark_asphodel]

I've liked exotic fruit from early childhood. Part of it was the influence of Joe Carcione, the "Greengrocer" who made it his mission to evangelize fresh fruits and vegetables to the people of the U.S. and beyond.  If your Safeway or Kroger or Publix or Zeller's includes mangoes and cherimoyas, a little old Italian guy from San Francisco likely shares at least some of the credit.  Good old Joe definitely introduced me to mangoes and cherimoyas via his spots on the local news.  More on that later.

The other catalyst was an issue of Ranger Rick magazine from '85 or '86 that contained an article called "Other Kids' Candy," an explanation to the kids of whitebread America that children in other countries enjoyed tamarinds and sugarcane and all these other yummy things that sure sounded good to me.  Fortunately, I lived in California then and had access to at least some of these "exotic" treats; things got dire after I moved to Tennessee in '88.  But a move to Tennessee did offer the promise that I'd be able to taste something I'd only known from books and one irritating folksong-- the paw paw.

Thanks to good old Joe Carcione, I knew what a cherimoya was and I knew that I liked it.  Paw paws were something like cherimoyas-- more "custard apples"-- but they grew right here in the States, didn't transport well, and the only way to really get a supply was to find a tree.  Well, surely I could wheedle my mother into taking me somewhere that paw paw trees grew, right?  Wrong.  I raided that corner of the Mid-South for all it was worth, getting everything from fossil sharks' teeth to sumac "lemonade," but never found any paw paws.  Hell, even when the lady at the local nature center gave a talk on edible stuff from the woods, she talked about paw paws but couldn't show us any.

Turns out I needed to get to the northern end of the paw paw range, up to Michigan (home of Paw Paw Township) to get some native custard-apple action.  Or "Michigan banana" action.  Zingerman's was having a "Paw Paw Party" today, on-site at the creamery where they make gelato, and I got into there, oh yes.

If any of you on the f-list have seen one of these things, I'm betting it's Manna.  A ripe paw paw is about the size and shape of the small yellow mangoes that have become more popular over the last ten year.  The skin is smooth like a mango, green like a cherimoya, and turns an overripe-banana black when, well, overripe.  Split it open to reveal a creamy yellow pulp that definitely looks like a rich custard.  You can just eat that sucker up with a spoon, avoiding the shiny dark seeds-- I ate two of 'em tonight.  And the taste?  Well... "tropical," I guess.  It's compared to bananas, mangoes, papaya, and even cantaloupe, or a mixture of all four... but honestly tastes quite like a cherimoya.  Sorry if that doesn't help any!  

We tried the paw paw with various samples of bread, jam, and cheese to see what it would "pair" with.  It worked nicely with one white crumbly cheese (house-made Dutch belted Manchester), mashed together on the bread.  The paw paw jam was brown and caramel-tasting.  We compared the fresh pulp to samples of various fruit, or at least the people NOT allergic to mangoes did.  I avoided that plate.  We enjoyed a vanilla-bean/paw paw custard pie and freshly made paw paw gelato, and I bought a small sack of ripe paw paws to take home so I could make my own ice cream.  There wasn't any paw paw wine available, which was just as well as we'd already eaten ourselves quite ill.  

I'll let y'all know how the ice cream turns out.  In the meantime, I'll be keeping my eye open for next year's Paw Paw Festival down in Ohio.

Comments

[amielleon]

I grew up in Ohio but I was never very adventurous about foods. I was cautioned from an early age not to taste the beautiful looking fruits that grew on trees because they were poisonous, which was probably good advice. For this reason, I never thought too hard about "mayapples", wild cherries, and other things that in hindsight might be processed into non-poisonous food somehow.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted to try something with mayapples, but getting them without stealing from park land isn't easy. Also leery of morel-picking, given the threat of "false morels," but I may try it sometime.

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

A festival? Here? ... Sounds like a trap. Bring guns.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Hah. Yeah, let's see how the Red Army rifle goes over...

[xirysa.livejournal.com]

Oh my stars, gelato. I approve.

Also, paw paws. Sounds delicious, do want. (And as far as "exotic treats" go, I've never been a fan of sugar cane. :P)

D: You're allergic to mangoes? I'm sorry. :C Oh well, more mangoes for me~

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

I like sugar cane... in small amounts.

Yeah, I react to mangoes the way most people react to poison ivy. Turns out to be a common enough allergy; I met a few people with the affliction when I traveled in Hawaii, where mangoes are of course everywhere. Oddly enough, I don't react to poison ivy.

[xirysa.livejournal.com]

Really? That's interesting--my sister has similar allergy to pineapple.

Sugarcane is way too pungent for my tastes; the molasses made from its syrup and juice is used a lot in different traditional dishes, so I've just gotten used to it, even though it makes me gag. :P

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Never would've described raw sugarcane as "pungent"-- molasses, yes, but not the cane itself. Hmm.

[xirysa.livejournal.com]

"Pungent" is really the only word I can think of to describe it--it's definitely a thicker sort of sweetness than actual sugar, more cloying and "heavier", really, on your tongue and in your throat. And the fibers are really annoying when they get in your teeth. :P