Our flight was canceled. That particular airline didn’t have another flight to our destination until the following week. We left LaGuardia airport feeling dejected but then in the cab, refusing to give up on our vacation, we booked new flights. We re-routed the cab to JFK International airport where we spent a cold, uncomfortable night on a slab bench, awaiting our early morning flight. The following day, after a six-hour flight, we got into our rental car and grimly anticipated the three-hour drive to our hotel. We felt tired, a little dirty, and hungry. But then, like a mirage in the desert, we spotted a roadside fruit stand…and they had a beautiful pile of star apples! I was ecstatic — even if the rest of the trip goes to shit, it will still have been worth it! It’s March of 2011 and we had just arrived in Costa Rica for the first time. That’s always what I think of when I think of star apples or caimitos.
If they are not apples, what are they?
What are star apples? In fact, they’re not apples at all and are closely related to sapotes. If you’ve ever seen or touched them in person you would see that they bear little resemblance to apples at all except that they’re round. Chrysophyllum cainito has many common names, including star apple in English, or caimito/cainito in Spanish, or vu sua in Vietnamese. They’re a small tropical fruit that is likely indigenous to the West Indies but is now widely available throughout Central and South America as well as parts of Asia and Africa. There are two main varieties, ones that are purple on the outside or ones that are green on the outside. I marginally prefer the purple ones as I think they are sweeter but it may just be in my head 🤷🏻♀️?
What do they taste like?
Mmmmmmm…small orbs of delicious, gelatinous, milky goodness. That’s how I remember them and honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve had any so I’m at a loss to describe any more complex notes that may be there. But if you stumble across any, trust me and try them! Aside from the small amount of latex that might get on your lips, they’re sweet and lovely and not polarizing at all! Do I love some fruits that other people find challenging? Yep! But this is not one of those fruits.
How to choose and eat them
Unless you’re lucky enough to pick these right off the tree, the ones you buy were picked mature, but probably not fully ripe. If buying the purple ones, try to choose ones that aren’t showing too much green near the stem. When ripe, the fruit will be dull in color, slightly soft, and a little wrinkled. If the skin is taut and shiny, it’s not quite ripe yet. To ripen, place your caimitos on the counter at room temperature and check them every day by seeing if there’s some give when you squeeze them. Ripe fruit can be stored in the refrigerator for about two weeks. Do not put unripe star apples into the refrigerator since they will not ripen properly after being removed.
Eating star apples is simple, cut them in half and spoon out the white flesh, spitting out the inedible black seeds. If you cut them along the equator, you will see the multi-pointed star that gives this fruit its English common name, but cutting it the other way is fine too. Sometimes I prefer it because the knife won’t hit as many seeds that way.
Alternatively, the Vietnamese way of eating them is to roll them in your palms or on a flat surface to soften them up even more and loosen the delectable white sections inside, then you make a nickel-sized hole where the stem is — either with a knife or with your teeth (yep, that’s how it’s done in the old country and I love it) then you simply slurp up all the goodness inside. This is my favorite way of eating them and makes them perfectly portable fruits for eating on the go. Gleb and I happily slurped up whole bags of them on our car rides in Costa Rica 🤫.
In the US, star apples can only found growing in Hawaii and Florida but fruit produced in Vietnam was approved for import in 2017 so you may be able to find them in a specialty or, most likely, an Asian grocery store near you. For the last two years I have occasionally been able to buy them from my favorite fruit vendor in NYC’s Chinatown. This is the start of the season so hopefully, I’ll be able to get my hands on some soon!
Origin and Distribution
The star apple is likely to have originated in the West Indies, being very common in Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and many Caribbean islands. It has since spread to Central and South America, as far south as Argentina and Peru. One of the earliest records of it was by Spanish conquistador, Ciezo de Leon, who encountered it growing in Peru between 1532 and 1550. Star apple seeds were received in Sri Lanka in 1802. It was introduced to Florida and Hawaii before 1901 and the US Department of Agriculture received seeds from Jamaica in 1904. In Asia, it’s known to be grown mainly in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines. In Africa, it’s reportedly grown in Benin, Nigeria, and Zanzibar. Few countries produce star apples commercially so reliable global production numbers aren’t available. I think this fruit has great import potential for the northern hemisphere because they’re in season in late winter to early summer when there’s a dearth of fruit besides citrus.
Fruitfully yours,
Yen
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