Oh boy you guys! Look, I’m game to try all the things and believe me… I want to like it all. But, oh my gosh, some of these ‘fruits’ are a fail for me. I know I’m in the minority as a jicama hater but I think more people will agree with me on this one: pokenoboy is a bunch of bullsh!t. A cluster of crap. If acorns and grapes had a bastard baby it would be pokenoboy.
(From my fast-and-loose, unscientific study) 8 out of 10 people agree, pokenoboy is poken-o-bad, but the other 2 love it. Why? Nostalgia! They don’t like it because it’s nice to consume; they like it because they grew up foraging it and it reminds them of their childhoods and running free in Belize. I tried to think of a food or flavor that would define my childhood that foreigners may not understand or may even find repulsive. The closest I could come up with was the hot plastic taste of drinking directly from the garden hose on a summer’s day. That slightly toxic, life-giving fountain of fuel for a generation of kids that were told to ‘go out and play’ and banned from re-entering the house until dinnertime. That, OR aspartame. Old-school artificial sweetener is a flavor that is reminiscent of my childhood but would turn some other people’s stomachs. A glass of sun tea with a full packet of Sweet’n Low- that’s the stuff! Anyway, pokenoboy isn’t good but it is beloved by some.
How do you eat it?
Eat it raw (preferably only in an apocalypse scenario when there is nothing else to be found) right from the tree. I got mine from the Taste Belize shop in Placencia; they came in fresh from Lyra’s farm. Crack the outer shell with your teeth and peel it off, discard. The outside tastes like dirt, or someone else said: tobacco. Either way… gross. Gnaw on the ‘pulp’ around the pit. Lyra told me I could cut the pulp off the stone and I replied, “with what exactly, a surgeons scalpel?” These ‘fruits’ don’t really have any flesh to speak of and that pulp is only slightly juicy and mostly fibrous. The pit inside is huge and inedible so after you suck and gnaw on it for a bit just spit it out and toss it away. The taste a bit sweet a bit tart.
How would I rate it?
2 out of 10 stars. Not the worst but as far as food goes, pokenoboy is pretty useless. Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comments.
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Sounds horrible – I think I’ll pass. I had the awful experience of trying a sea grape this morning. I kinda thought you were describing it – And I like tart lemons, limes etc, but not those little suckers. Ugh.
hahaha maybe you can try sea grapes again in another month or 2- end of summer seagrapes are a better, sweeter… but they’re still not grape-grapes