The Papaya in Question
This entire post is dedicated to the fact that I bought a papaya for myself, ate it, loved it, and went back and bought another papaya.
Here's the thing, where I live in Coastal California, there is abundant local, organic, seasonal fruit all year long. Whatever time of year it is, I can purchase great fruit for myself at the market: apples and pears, oranges and pomelos, berries and cherries, melons, etc. So I almost never buy tropical fruit. It's not quite a moral principle... but it's just like "I don't need to do that, so I shouldn't." I probably buy bananas 1-2x a year if the spirit moves me, and lately I have been enjoying the occassional chocolate-dipped frozen banana. Mangos, maybe 1 per year, but they're rarely as good as I know they could be.
But a papaya? I don't know how long it had been. Easily a few years. For some reason, as soon as Covid and the shelter-in-place restrictions hit our community, I started thinking about papayas. It was a very stressful time for me, because my business partners and I had to make the decision to move all the yoga classes online, learn how to teach online, tell the students, etc. It was overwhelming. And I kept thinking about papayas.
This is the second papaya.
So, finally, after about six weeks, I drove down to the little open-air produce market near our house and BOUGHT MYSELF A GOSH-DARNED PAPAYA.
Guess what??? It was extremely perfect, excellent, delicious. Everything I ever wanted it to be. It was huge, so I parsed it out over 4 days, in 4 big bowls of giant papaya chunks, doused liberally with fresh lime juice.
Bask in the glory
Believe you me, I have been indulging in all the usual comfort foods of chocolate and carbs as much as the next stressed out global citizen... but these papayas filled a special and mysterious void in my heart. I will probably have to go get another one, even though now berry season is fast approaching. I mean, one more. Right?
You crack me up! I vote for you buying a papaya whenever you want one.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminded me of the papayas I had when I was in Grenada. Now THAT was local. :)
I used to hate papayas when I was a kid, but now I love them!
ReplyDeleteThat is interesting what you say about how often you buy bananas and mangoes. My dad is a huge banana eater, so we always have lots in our house, and summer is always mango season here. But living in Queensland, we have a lot of local banana and mango production, so even from the supermarkets they are always somewhat local.
If you are going to eat imported produce, this is the way to do it, appreciating it fully! Even better if you could find an organic one. Did you use the seeds for anything, my cousin used to use in salad dressing for a peppery component?
ReplyDeleteI love that you shared this “sweet” discovery! Once while visiting a friend on the island of Kauai she picked a fresh and exquisitely ripe papaya right off of her tree for me to have for breakfast. It was so perfect that I never want to eat another one again. Same thing with a trip to Paris I had. One and done. Some things can’t be replicated.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, I love this post so much!! And you know what? I don't think I've ever had a good papaya. I've only tried it a couple times, and it was never good. So I'm sure I had a yucky, not so fresh papaya. Yours looks delicious! I remember mine being mushy and weird. I need to try papaya again.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I'm also craving a papaya now! I hope you went back and got a second one... sometimes you just have to splurge.
ReplyDelete