Two dollars bought entrance to Maku’u Market’s 175 vendors stretched across five acres. I picked out a spiky rollinia, with the custardy flesh and tannic tang of lemon yogurt, and a soursop that looked like a lumpy, prickly goth avocado, though its silky innards burst with pineapple perfume. My abiu, a pale-yellow
While it looks like an avocado, the soursop has sour, citrus-like notes with a creamy interior.
I left the formal market, at the closed Kaleo’s Bar & Grill, where a woman named Pam sells fruit from the porch on Sundays. My fruit-fanatic eyes went wide at the sight of a seven-pound cempedak, a true treasure tasting of Juicy Fruit gum. The jackfruit-cousin was reasonably priced, at $35, but heralded too much work and mess for a solo traveller sans kitchen. I settled
You’ll find fruit plantations across the Hawaiian Islands (left page); Cainito are often known as star apples due to the distinctive shape of their interior (top).
fist-sized sphere, leaked a little sap to signify its peak, opening to a perfectly translucent jelly and flavour borrowed from crème brûlée. I splurged on durian, mangosteens, and my only regret: a chocolate sapote whose green tomato exterior and chocolate pudding within were each as bland as they were beautiful.
Abiu are known to have a delicate sweetness similar to crème brûlée.
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