Museums around the world are stocked with still life paintings of fruits and food from at least the last seven centuries. Art students and masters alike seem to find incredible inspiration in a few pieces of fruit.
There is something about the shape, texture, color and detailing of fruit that invites closer scrutiny and inspires creativity. I have often lingered at paintings hung on museum walls, or homes of collectors, that feature just a single piece or type of fruit – a few peaches whose “fuzz” capture just the right amount of reflected light, the intricately replicated webbed pattern on the surface of a cantaloupe or the moisture a glistening bunch of grapes. But since this is mostly western art, one quickly realizes there is a whole world of tropical fruit left unexplored or unpainted. There are exceptions, of course; Dutch painters who spent years in Indonesia, Spanish and Portuguese artists in Central and South America, and the French in parts of Asia and Africa.
The range of tropical fruit available to artists based in the Philippines is amazing. I am always surprised by the natural tableaus that come together on a side table in our dining room at this time of the year. During the summer months of April, May and June, fruit is in abundance and at the peak of perfection. These photos, taken a few days ago, were completely unplanned, and the selection in our “fruit bowl” is based on harvests from our own backyard, market finds and gifts from friends.
The bowl has some deep burgundy makopa (malay apple), intensely sweet chicos (sapodilla), a bounty of passionaria (passion fruit), two kinds of papayas, a couple of heavy caimito (star apple) fruit, several mangoes (both unripe and ripe) and finally, the bizarrely shaped brown fruit in the rear is a decorative and inedible fruit of a nipa palm. It just so happens that most of the fruit in this selection have relatively smooth skins, but imagine the riot of color and texture with the addition of pineapples, rambutan, guyabano, langka, mabolo, rattan fruit, atis, duhat, sineguelas, mangosteens, sampalok, etc.
Over the next twelve weeks, I will be writing about the “Fruits of Philippine Summer” Each week, I will feature one fruit that is abundant at local markets, at or near the peak of its seasonal splendor, and at relatively low cost. An occasional recipe will be included so that you can try out something new or learn how to preserve the fruit and enjoy it for a longer period of time. There was a time, not too long ago, when you knew what fruits were in season because you were hanging out on or below the tree bursting with ripe fruit. Armed with a handful of salt, eating succulent duhat, tambis, mangoes, etc. just seconds after picking them were part and parcel of many a childhood summer memory. Today, many urbanites have to get a heads up on the internet, then hopefully head to a local market to stock up on the seasonal bounty.
If you are interested in food, you may want to visit my blog www.marketmanila.com, which contains nearly 3,000 posts on market finds, produce and recipes.