Custard apples, inside the rice grain container

18 September 2007

Custard apple - a fruit that is usually round or oval, slightly pine cone-like, 6-10 cm diameter and weighing 100-230 g, with a scaly or lumpy skin. The fruit flesh is edible, white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like custard. The seeds are scattered through the fruit flesh; they are blackish-brown, 12-18 mm long, and hard and shiny (Wikepedia encyclopedia)

Whenever I see any custard apple whether it is in the supermarket or at the garden, my memory will go back to the days when I was a little girl. I like to go my uncle’s house when I was small. My uncle with his family was staying in a wooden house with a big compound that planted with a lot of custard apples and other fruits like papaya and guava. They also reared chickens and ducklings. I remembered usually every visit, my uncle would sure go to the backyard to pluck some custard apples for us to bring home.

The custard apples were usually still very raw. My mom would put the creamy green custard apples into the rice grain container and covered them with the rice. When the custard apples ripe, they will turn soft. Every time when my mom opened the rice grain container and saw the custard apples have ripen, she would asked us to share custard apples among us. The custard apples with white flesh are juicy and there are a lot of seeds in between the flesh. Eating custard apples became part of my childhood’s memory.

During this mid-autumn mooncake festive season, my mom reminded us to buy my uncle some mooncakes and pameloes to thank him for taking care of us throughout these years. We must have a grateful heart.