Nature’s High
All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope, Smoothies.
Juan’s mom and I made a quick trip to the fruit and veggie market the other day and while we were meandering around we came up a fruit I didn’t recognize. This is pretty common for me. There are lots of tropical fruit that I have no idea what they are. It wasn’t the pear shape that interested me, nor the yellow color, it was the aroma. Now when I say aroma what I really mean is the drug like effect it had on my senses. No word of a lie, this fruit has an euphoric effect.
The new focus of my desire is called guayaba, or in English guava. I’ve tried it before in a jelly fruit candy. The smell isn’t the same, but I had a general idea of the taste. Anyway, for the rest of that morning we drove around with them in the car and all I kept thinking was, this could be bottled and sold as a natural anti-depressant. Well I guess eating them is easier than bottling and the nutritional value is outstanding!
I decided to make a batido (or a smoothie). I cut the fruit length wise and cut them into cubes, like I do with mangoes. This by the way, is the wrong way. Juan’s mom came into the kitchen and told me that I needed to peel the skin like a potato and then cut it into smaller pieces. I was just going to throw everything into the blender willy nilly, but this is also incorrect. After cutting the guava and placing it in the blender, you need to add a lot of water and blend on high.
The next step is to put the juice through a sieve and mash all the pulp out. This process also removes the seeds, which by the way are as hard as little pebbles.
I also decided to add some papaya. This is something I wish I liked more, but I can’t get over the smell. The color, on the other hand is something that I love! I put it in smoothies because it’s supposed to be SO good for you.
The last thing I put was an apple. I had no idea if this combination would work, but I thought, What the hell? It won’t be that bad.
And it wasn’t! Actually, it kind of tasted like a mild bubble gum. I think next time I’m going to add passion fruit to my guava juice. You know, there are a million different possibilities here!