The Fruity Review: Chontaduros

Some have called it the world’s best exotic fruit, and some have said it tastes like wet chalk. Whatever you have heard chontaduros this unique fruit must be tried while you are here in Colombia, and if you are headed to Cali, then you’re headed to the chontaduro capital of the world.

Chontaduros here in Colombia (known as pejibayes in Central America and pijuayos in Peru) are a main food staple for many indigenous and coastal populations. Their significance is so strong in the south, that for the holiday season in Cali there were several glowing figurines of chontaduro vendadores exceeding two meters in height, as well as Dr. Suess style Christmas trees lined with blinking chontaduros (watch out dancing sugar plums whatever the hell you are!) And since the 1970’s large plantations of chontaduros have been harvested with the wood from the palms used for hut construction and exotic hardwood floor exports.

Like, oysters and chocolate, chontaduros join the foods fabled to be natural aphrodisiacs. We here at The Arepa put one field reporter to the test and after eating two-a-day for a week he noted a “warm and fuzzy” heightened sex drive (Horny Goat Weed you’ve met your match!). Then again, his reporting could’ve just been the result of the tropical mini-skirt and tank-top climate of Cali.

The best chontaduros are from street vendors (here in Medellin they can be found around the plaza outside the Botero Museum) and as fruit goes, they are not cheap. One large ripe piece can cost 1.500 pesos or a small bag of 6 can be 2.000 pesos. They are best when dressed in salt and honey because plain they are a bit dry and this is almost always offered as is the custom. We have found the dark red variety to be the most palatable and the yellow variety to be the most dry.

Be prepared for the texture of a potato and a savory flavor like a smoked yam. And in addition to their sexual enhancing qualities, the pit of every chontaduro can be cracked and the coconut pulp within can be eaten. Thus it is nature’s very own twofer’ – two fruits for the price of one! But the chontaduro is not your lazy afternoon tropical foray like your mangoes or papayas, instead they have the nutritional content similar to a weigh-gainer 5000 power shake. Equivalent to an egg, rich in protein, carbohydrates, fat, and vitamin a few chontaduros will fill you up and suffice for a lunch. Most cower in discomfort with their strange texture, but give them a chance and you may soon be craving this delicious exotic wonder fruit.