Joy’s Thai Food Recipe & Dessert Blog!

Cutting Ripe Papaya: Less Pain

Since I was 10 years old, my main duty is to help in the kitchen whenever there was someone is cooking and it is a must if my aunt is in there. I think that is how, EE, her daughter learn to cook, she is way better than me and able to cook for a party up to 30 people. That is a lot of work!

I hated it whenever my aunt bought a ripe papaya from the market because that means it is going to be my job to cut them and it’s going to be my uncle.. to eat them.. haha Thinking about a girl with small hands holding a big papaya and trying to cut it when the ripe papaya is so slippery!!! Anyway, I managed to survived.. (and my uncle has to eat salty papaya in the papaya juice)

I have improved to be a papaya cutting expert.     Here is how I cut a ripe papaya, less pain, less messy and less salty as you barely touch the papaya with your salty hands.

1. Set up your cutting area, by the sink is the best. There you should have your cutting board and a knife. The reason you need to be close to the sink is that you can wash your hands whenever you need and you won’t splash the papaya juice all over the kitchen. I used to cut the papaya on the newspaper. I think it still makes a mess.

Some Thai people prefer taking the seed out with chopstick on this step. I used to do it but there’s no need. To pull the seeds out right now will cause bruise as you have to squeeze to hold a papaya in your hand.

2. Then cut the skin out from a side. Lay the papaya on the cutting board, see? you barely touch it. Follow the photos to see how.. when you are done at this step, rinse the papaya well with clean water as there is white milk come out from its skin. This milk could cause your skin irritation on the lips.

Last step!

Enjoy your real sweet papaya!

Merry Christmas to everyone! and thank you for visitting my blog!

(^_^) Joy~

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Rose Apples (Mountain Apples or, in Thai, “Chompoo”)

Thai food: Rose Apples…

These are one of my Thai food favorites… it’s not really just Thai food, but it’s all over Asia. I first had these “apples” when I was hiking in Hawaii. I was on a long hike and dying for something besides the water I had been carrying. I always carried about a gallon of water since I drank that much in 5 hours of hiking! There wasn’t much room for food.

I was hiking with a friend from the Philippines. We got to a stream and I saw these red fruits hanging on the tree – and thought that if I eat that fruit I’m probably going to hell… and I asked him what it was… he said, oh, “Mountain apple”. I said, HUH?

They were close enough to reach them. When he told me to help myself and eat until I couldn’t eat anymore – that’s exactly what I did. There’s something about trying a food for the first time when you’re over-the-edge with hunger. ANYTHING would taste good. Perhaps. But, these rose apples are incredible anyway. They are so refreshing – they have these juice cells that hold all this water. When you bite it and chew it – it is sooo refreshing – it was like jumping in a waterfall! Well, to me it was.

I’m not sure that you can find these in your Asian market. It’s likely that they wouldn’t be shipped from Asia since they are a delicate fruit and ripen very quickly. There’s a very short shelf-life on these, when they’re ripe they must be eaten quickly. They are not that sweet. The skin has this very unique flavor that I liken to “mint” of some sort… but I’m not that great with food tastes – (Joy’s husband here)…

These are a great after dinner dessert or a between courses snack – since it will clean your palate for the next course.

Ok – that’s my contribution to Joy’s Thai food blog – since she’s feeling a little ill tonight after we trekked up a waterfall this afternoon… Maybe the mosquitos, I really hope not…

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