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- Title:
- Canon Fruit
- Description:
- “Carne de membrillo,” flesh of quince fruit, is a favourite Spanish conserve from its Moorish past. It was carried by Magellan’s voyage of exploration. (See #magellanmenu) Quince couldn’t grow in tropical Philippines. Diego Bobadilla, SJ notes that starfruit, balimbing, birambi (Averrhoa carambola) could be conserved. It tasted like plum when conserved with honey (later sugars) and smelled like quince when ripe on the tree. “Birimbines” conserve was used on galleon trips back to Mexico. It was even ordered by residents there. Native to tropical Southeast Asia, possibly the Moluccas in particular, it spread to the South Pacific and East Asia, although when remains to be traced. ”Carambola” in Spanish means a canon, the sound of a canon, billiards and the sound of billiard balls hitting each other. Was there a military projectile shaped like starfruit? How and why carambola was applied to a sourish fruit with a cross section resembling a star could remain a conundrum.
- Subjects:
- Quince Ferdinand Magellan Carambola
- Exhibition:
- Diego Bob 1616
- Source:
- Illustration by Kaarin Wall in her book A JAKARTA MARKET published for charities of the American Women’s Association, Jakarta, Indonesia 1983 and 1985.
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Canon Fruit", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll086.html