Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
Central America has all kinds of things that I never see here, eg. canistel or black sapote, as well as variants of mango, corn, and banana that don't sell in the US.
The cheaper varieties of mangoes are similar to what Americans are familiar with, but much more consistent. Mangoes grow so readily here that in season I can get a kilo for $0.25 and they're always perfectly ripe. There is a more expensive variety that is purely sweet and has a more gelatinous texture, and it feels "decadent" in the same way that a rich chocolate cake does.
The bananas are way better, especially some of the smaller varieties that have a thicker consistency. There are cart vendors everywhere here that grill those small bananas and sell them on sticks.
And then there are many others in the markets, a lot of which don't have common names in English but all of them are great really. It's so cheap that in my diet I eat fruit instead of rice or bread as a carbohydrate source. Even most imported fruits are pretty reasonably priced, so you can still easily find things like apples, champagne grapes, cherries, etc.
Dragonfruit exists mostly as a frozen smoothie ingredient, although you can get it seasonally as well.
Lychee is somewhat available seasonally, longan never or almost never.
And I've never seen a Pomelo outside of SE Asia.
I bought one a few years ago and was disappointed at the small amount of grapefruit-ish flesh, not realising how people actually eat them (candied peel and pith) in parts of Asia.
How it's eaten does seem to vary by country. I've never tried the pith either, but would like to sometime!