Mamones Chinos A Costa Rica Fruit Treasure
Mamones chinos are starting to fruit for the 2014 season. Que rico!
Costa Rica is home to hundreds of fruits, and in particular, the Osa Peninsula’s weather patterns provides the perfect environment for growing mamones chinos. I love mamones chinos as much as guanabana’s. The main advantage of mamones chinos versus guanabana is the ease of eating.
What is a ‘mamon chino‘?
A mamon chino is a fruit that grows on trees (most fruits do grow on trees but a few don’t) and is harvested once a year. To eat one, you simply pluck it off the tree, rip the skin of with your teeth, which will generally open in two or three large pieces, then eat the sweet, white fruit. There is an almond-like seed in the middle of each fruit, so you have to eat and suck off the fruit from the seed. Once you are finished eating the fruit you spit out the seed.
Eating mamones chinos will definitely get your hands sticky and they are a bit messy to eat as the easiest way to eat them is with your hands and utensils will not help.
The name of the fruit tells you a lot about the food. mamon is from the word mamar, meaning ‘to suck’. Chino comes from “China”. Therefore, the ‘mamon chino’ is the Chinese sucking fruit.
We’ve planted several in Las Villas de San Buenas, and just this last weekend one of our customers requested that we plant a couple
near his home. It takes a couple of years after planting for it to start producing fruit.
Nick Halverson
CEO, Las Villas de San Buenas
nick@villassanbuenas.com
