January 3, 2010

Sour green

The fruit of the Averrhoa bilimbi, known as kamias in the Philippines, is very sour—as sour as its green color would suggest. Some like it precisely because of that and eat it raw as a snack, usually first dipping it in rock salt. We also use it as an alternative to sampalok (tamarind) in making sinigang, a soupy sour stew that most Filipinos love, whether it is made of fish, pork, beef or shrimp. A young Filipino chef named Margarita "Gaita" Fores, who owns several restaurants in Metro Manila, popularized it as a fruit shake which is surprisingly very good and not as sour as one familiar with the fruit would think.

kamias fruit on a tree

26 comments:

Jay said...

make me salivanation...even when it sour. still remember when i was young i just eat it raw.

Lois said...

They certainly are a beautiful shade of green! I've never heard of them before.

Don and Krise said...

I've never heard of these either. I'll bet you could mix up a drink with quite a "zing" to it if you added some of this.

JTG (Misalyn) said...

Am salivating here...reminded me about the 'buro'.

Kamias shake? Hmm that really sounds interesting. I guess, I need to try it. Whoa, vacy.....2 months to go :)

Have a nice day Ms. Hilda.

Al said...

Ahh kamias with sauteed bagoong, fresh tomatoes, and onions is a big hit!! Happy New Year Hilda!

AL

Chuck Pefley said...

I've never encountered these either. I love the color and shape, though.

Kaori said...

So many tropical fruits in the Philipines! I'm curious as to how sour this fruit is...hope I get to try one someday :D

hadv said...

Makes my mouth water just hearing the word. In our province we call the fruit 'iba'. A restaurant here serves Iba shake, served on a cocktail glass. It's delicious.

escape said...

best eaten with soy sauce but im not really into it. my brother is. i rarely see trees like that in metro manila.

Clueless in Boston said...

I'd like to try one of those fruit shakes. I love sour tasting fruit.

Sally said...

Hmmmm - a little different to my salty sea-green!
Thanks for the new year greetings -a bit tardy in reply - I am on holidays!

Lianne said...

yum yum! i love kamias hehehe

happy new year!

leethroughthelens.blogspot.com

VP said...

Great picture of an unknown to me but very interesting fruit. There are many Filipinos in Livorno, probably the oldest of the new communities, but they never set up a food shop, like many others. Reading your posts makes me sorry about this!

brattcat said...

This is also unknown to me but I would love to taste it. Thank you for introducing it to us.

arabesque said...

love the color! it all looks so fresh and green! ^0^

hi hilda! wishing you a Happy new year! all the best!

Washington said...

Hi Hilda.
Interesting to know about this fruit. It seems to be very sour.
I wish you an extremely happy new year.

Leif Hagen said...

Fantastically fruity foto! I've never seen those before and clearly never had the chance to taste one! Maybe someday at the CDP blogger convention in Manila!

Vicki said...

Hi Hilda. Just popping into say hello. I like to think that I learn something new every day, and today I learnt about kamias. Fascinating and of course, a great pic. Adding your blog to my RSS feed.

Andreea said...

I like its silky green color and I'll be willing to taste it in all the ways you described it.

MJ said...

asim pero sarap yan pag-may asin...

Hilda said...

Dom:
Really? It's quite common to see kamias (and other fruit trees) growing in backyards in my part of QC. We had one when we were younger, before dad paved that part of the lot. This was in the yard of my sister-in-law's neighbor.

Anonymous said...

Green - the colour of hope.

I never heard of it before and hope that this year will be only sweet for you all.

Please have a nice new week.

Eki said...

We call it Belimbing Wuluh (I think that the binomial name "bilimbi" originated from, I think). It has medicinal properties.

maricar said...

"kamias" or "kamyas" mmm! lecker! :) remind me of my childhood :) fell down the tree ;)

traveller said...

ooooo...naglalaway tuloy ako

George said...

It's amazing that this sour fruit is used in a fruit shake.