One of the favorite activities for tourists in Valladolid Yucatan is visiting the local market and see Mayan ladies in their colorful dresses selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables.
While there are many traditional fruits like bananas, oranges, and apples there are also many new and exotic fruits. If you love to try new flavors, be sure to try some of the Yucatecan fruits.
We made a list of some for the species you can find during the fall, we hope you enjoy it and can help you identify some of the exotic fruits in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Huaya, Guaya
Melicoccus bijugatus
These round fruits look like a shiny green olive, and it is sold in bunches that include the stems. This fruit has to be peeled carefully to find in the inside a juicy whitish pulp with a mango-like flavor.
It is important to be careful when you chew the fruit as it has a pit in the middle. The fruit is quite slippery, so it is important to cut it in pieces when feeding children, as it can be accidentally swallowed and get stuck in their throat causing suffocation.
Pitahaya, Pitaya
Hylocereus undatus
This hot pink apple-sized fruits can be found during autumn in the local markets. The fruit has a hard skin with scale looking skin, once you cut them out of the fruit inside you will find a white flesh with tiny black seeds.
These pitahayas are not as sweet as the ones that can be found in the center region of Mexico, but it is quite refreshing as a juice or snack.
Pepino Kat
Parmentiera Aculeata
The name of this fruit is Cucumber Kat, but this fruit has nothing to do with the cucumber and it is more closely tied to sesame. This fruit grows on a tall tree all over the tropics in Mexico and it is widely used for food, wood, animal feed, etc.
In the Yucatan, this plant is eaten as fruit but there is also a regional dish called salpimentado that has plenty of cooked kat slices in it.
Anona or Saramuyo
Annona squamosa L.
This fruit is the size of a peach, it is green and it has scale looking indentations. It belongs to the Annona family; with the guanabana, pox and many other species of these fruits that grow in the tropics.
This plant comes from India, but it has been growing in the area for centuries. The flavor is very similar to soursop (annona muricata), but sweeter and more intense.
Pox or Pool Box
Annona Purpurea.
This is an enigmatic fruit, cousin of annona and guanabana and the tree can be found in the wild in vast areas of southern Mexico and Central America. This fruit has the size of a small melon and the outside skin has hard thorn-like protuberances.
The fruit is very similar to a mango, as it has a sweet juicy flesh with a stringy feel to it. The fruit has big slimy seeds in the center, and its flavor is also similar but not as sweet.
Valladolid is a place where fresh fruit can be found everywhere, even the smallest house will have some fruit trees in the backyard. If you love fruits, you will find your own local favorite very soon!