fruit · The Trophy Room
Ice Apple
The palmyra palm fruit — a hard black-and-green cannonball on the outside, hiding a cluster of translucent, jelly-soft "ice apples" within. Slice off the fibrous top and pop out the cool, sweet, water-filled seed sockets; nothing beats it in tropical heat, which is exactly when it's sold.
Identifying
- large round fruit with a dark shell topped by a fibrous green cap, sold in market piles
- inside, two or three translucent jelly seed-pockets ("ice apples"), each holding sweet clear water
- the young jelly is soft and slippery; the mature seed hardens into a woody nut
- husked ones show the pale glassy segments
Facts
- the palmyra palm gives sap for jaggery and toddy, leaves for thatch, and this cooling fruit — a whole economy in one tree
- the jelly seeds are called nungu or tal in India, ice apple across Southeast Asia
- eaten straight, chilled, or in cool drinks; the water inside is naturally sweet
