Fruits & Nuts of Vanuatu Nakatambel Wash thoroughly and eat raw, avoiding the core. The locals love them but it seems to be an acquired taste, the skin can be bitters.
Navarek
(Vanuatu Apple)Intensely seasonal, you will either see them in their thousands or none at all. These small red apple shaped fruit are usually hit from the trees, often resulting in some level of damage. Wash and eat as raw fruit.Store in cool dry place, will only keep for 1 – 2 days.
Guava
Island Raspberry
(Gwava)Choose large firm fruit with green/yellow colour. Wash and eat as raw fruit. Boil up skins and pulp to make fruit juice. Enhance flavour with a little lemon juice. Store in cool place. Pulp can be frozen
(Aelan Rasberi) Small soft raspberry fruit found in the market. Displayed in pottles, but transferred to plastic bags on purchase. Very easily damaged so recommend taking your own container to protect fruits if buying other produce.
Navale
Much easier to but the prepared nuts threaded on sticks from the market. Brown skins can be removed or eaten. Once threaded the nuts only last a day so don’t buy too many! Preparing nuts from the tree involves chopping the large green nut in half and prying out the small flesh inside. Very time consuming and a good deal of skill is required.
Soursop (Saosop)Buy firm fruit and store to ripen. Once ripe it is very soft and the skin turns yellow. Cut in half and peel off skin, rub through a strainer to make puree or eat fresh. Do not break or eat the large black seeds as they contain a toxic substance. Pour puree over fruit salad, use to make fruit drinks and sorbets. Freeze pulp as ice block in drinks. Store in cool place. Ripens fast.