By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Sometime last week while my friend and I were eating tasty salad greens prepared by Doc Clare, another friend gave us sapote. It was the first time that my friend saw such fruit and asked what it was. It was a black sapote (Diospyros nigra) from barangay Tamboan in Besao, Mountain Province. I know the fruit because when we were young my Dad planted one in our yard and we were so excited when it bore so many fruits. When they ripened, we eagerly ate them only to be disappointed by its mushy bland taste. It must have been a family reaction because the tree was soon cut down and it was only much much later that I saw sapote fruit displayed during an Ayyoweng festival in Tadian. I don’t see it in the regular market. Which is a pity because this fruit is one of the fruits that has remained organic and natural and it is packed with energy and minerals. It contains calcium, phosphorus, potassium and Vitamin C, among others. It is of the same genus (?) as persimmon and so it is also called black persimmon or chocolate persimmon. It does look like chocolate pudding and some writers say it tastes like chocolate. My friend likes it!
Wikipedia says that “sapote” is a term for a soft, edible fruit. It listed different kinds of sapote, of varied colors, and not necessarily related to each other. There is yellow, white, green, mamey sapote, etc. In the Philippines, though, (as far as I know) when we say “sapote”, we mean the black sapote. It can be mixed with juices and smoothies, baked, or made into ice cream. Wow, black ice cream!
Yellow sapote is tiesa or canistel or egg fruit. It does look like a yummy egg yolk with its rich yellow color and has the texture of hard-boiled egg yolk, if it’s not overripe. Sumke. Like black sapote, it is so generous with its fruits (mamamyos nan begas na) and yet not many people like it. By its bright yellow color alone, we know it is packed with Vitamin A. Yes, 100 grams of tiesa packs 1,235 micrograms of beta carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A. Aside from this it contains 40 grams of Vitamin C and 40 grams calcium and many more nutrients! It also contains a lot of fiber which is our defense against colon cancer. Eating it with its skin is healthier because you get more of its nutrients and fiber. My rule of thumb when it comes to peeling fruits and fruit vegetables is that when the skin comes off easily like sapote, then I peel it. When the skin is glued like tiesa, then I can eat it whole, skin and all. Of course, you can choose to peel it, no problem.
Tiesa supposedly can be processed into pies and shakes and ice cream. It can be added to pancakes, cupcakes, jam and marmalade. Somebody made tiesa “butter” by adding sugar and cooking it to a paste, with or without lemon juice. It can be eaten with salt, pepper and lemon.
Chico or chikoo is also in the category of sapotes. It is also called sapodilla. It is crispier and sweeter than black sapote and tiesa thus more marketable. Although it also contains a lot of vitamins and minerals, it is also loaded with simple sugars (fructose and sucrose). We should be careful to limit our intake of simple sugars because our bodies can only take so much. I guess that’s why chicos have less fruit naturally than tiesa and sapote. Nature limits our intake. Chico is also a good source of dietary fiber especially if you eat it with the skin.
These three fruits are now in season. As summer comes, water diminishes and some vegetables fade out from the season, here come our tropical fruits. Sapote, chico, tiesa. Although not indigenous to the Philippines as these were supposedly brought by the Spaniards from Mexico, these are fruits of our tropical region, thus appropriate for us. And they are abundant, more than enough to feed us! Tiesa even just grows even if we don’t plant them. Do we still need to import fruits and bring foreign plant diseases?
These fruit trees mentioned don’t grow in the highland Cordilleras, though, so we who are living in these highlands need to be cautious. Ten-en tako. God gave us other food provisions. For healthy people, we can eat fruits in season. For those with cancer and diabetes, these are not advisable as these contain a lot of simple sugars. Anyway, there are many more organic foods around. And thank God, these sapote, tiesa and chico have remained organic and natural. We let them remain as is. **
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“He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. So mortals ate the bread of angels, he provided for them food enough.” Psalm 78:24-25
