9 Fruits You Should Try In Belize & How Locals To Eat Them

A few fruits that grow in Belize include: craboo, cacao, cashew, golden plum, kenep, mangosteen, noni, starfruit, and soursop.

Find out when they are in season and how the locals eat them.

1. Craboo

Craboo, known as nance in Spanish, is a small round and yellow fruit with a pungent smell. It has a thin shiny skin with white oily flesh and small black pit.

The texture is that of an old apple and the taste is distinct with an umami and mildly sweet experience.

2. Cacao

The cacao tree produces a fruit called a cacao pod which has seeds called the cacao beans. After the cacao bean is roasted, peeled, and made into a paste, it becomes what is called 100% chocolate. The cacao bean is precious and is considered the food of the gods by the Mayans. Besides the edible cacao bean, the sweet white flesh that surrounds it can be eaten upon opening the cacao pod.

Remember, what we know as every-day chocolate is, in fact, a processed form of cacao with additional compounds added such as milk and sugar.

3. Cashew

The cashew tree bears a cashew seed + cashew fruit which can both be eaten and used in various recipes. We are familiar with the cashew nut, but that has to undergo a long process before it's edible. Traditionally, the cashew seed is ripped apart from the fruit, sun dried and roasted to remove an external acidic white layer. It's then peeled, roasted once more and then cracked open to reveal the cashew nut.

4. Golden Plum

Golden plum or Amabarella is green fruit with a thick leathery skin and fibrous seeds. It's super fibrous. In fact, you'll need dental floss after eating this. When eaten unripe, the flesh is crisp and firm and has a sour taste. After ripening, it becomes yellow, soft and has a sweeter taste. It's a fruit worth the flossing effort.

5. Kenep

Kenep, Kinep or huaya in Belize is one of my favorite fruits. I always enjoyed cracking open the soft green shell and sucking the juicy, gelatinous orange pulp that's inside. It has a seed that surrounds the flesh which you have to spit out, but the flesh to seed ratio is perfect! When ripe, it's bittersweet and juicy in taste.

6. Mangosteen

Mangosteen, not to be confused with a mango, is a tropical fruit originating from South East Asia. It's the size of a Jamaican lime, has thick skin, normally dark red purplish in color and brown when ripe. The fruit pulp is white and soft inside with unevenly divided segments. To open the fruit, use a sharp knife to cut around the middle and twist the two halves apart.

7. Noni

Noni is a stinky smelling fruit that claims to have a plethora of health benefits including being used as cancer treatment. It's likely called noni because it resembles an "anona" which is Spanish custard apple.

8. Starfruit

Starfruit is a unique fruit that resembles a star when cut in cross-section. The entire fruit is edible. The outside has a somewhat waxy skin and the flesh is crunchy, firm, but super juicy. When ripe, they turn yellow and brown from the unripened green color.

9. Soursop

Soursop is a fruit that resembles a green egg with spikes from the outside. The inside has a white pulp or flesh that is both sweet and sour with a core of indigestible black seeds. The leaves, when boiled as tea, are also claimed to help treat certain type of cancers.