Makopa

(what i ate yesterday.)

the blog is using the Filipino name, makopa. (or, if you want to amuse people, you can exaggerate your fake  Americanized tongue and say, “mackow–ppa”. Like when i say, “ow–ckrah”, for okra, to make the vendor smile.).

      The search engines show that it is also known as Malay apple; one site even provides several alternate English names: Malay rose-apple, mountain apple, water apple, etc.

     the blog is using the Filipino name because the English names are obviously from the point of view of “discoverers” who, instead of adopting the local name where the fruit is endemic, just named it after the fruit that it looks like, the apple.

     Have you ever tasted a makopa? it is infinitely more subtle in taste than an apple. The red skin cannot be separated from the white, succulent flesh inside, the small fruit being more delicately crunchier. And when you sink your teeth into it, there’s a primary note (scent) of small, fresh leaves, then a woodsy scent, and finally just a hint of slightly sweet flower sap in the end, the sap-taste clinging to your teeth and tongue for a few seconds.