Confusion between Sapodillas and Mamey Sapotes

I was walking through a market and thought I spotted another new fruit for me. It looked a lot like a potato but a bit more of the shape of an American Football. The vendor had some of the fruit cut open and it had an orange inside with a large dark brown seed in the middle. I asked the price and agreed to buy a kilo.

I was impressed with myself that I asked the price in Spanish and understood the answer but that was the limit of my Spanish. The vendor rapidly explained to me all the wonders that this fruit would provide it I ate it while drinking a lot of water or maybe it was that I should not eat it while drinking water. Water was the only word I understood.

I did manage to ask him the name of the fruit and got him to understand. He told me the name and then launched into a rapid fire bit of additional information that I really needed to know. By the time he stopped talking I could not even remember my own name let alone the name of the fruit.

I was really surprised with I got back home and cut into these and found that they were not same orange color with a big seed in the middle. They had some orange but were mostly white and pink with small seeds. I cut 2 in half and I believe one was ripe where it was really soft and had a wonderful sweet sugary taste. The other one was hard and had a really bitter taste.

Looking back on it I think he tried to ask me which type of fruit I wanted but all I answered with was yes. He also did show me that some were softer than others and I assume now he meant that I should wait before trying to eat the hard ones.

I spent a bit of time searching on the internet and trying to recall the name he told me. I came up with the name Sapodillas and am pretty sure that is their name.

The name rang a bell with me so I went to notes of fruits I have tried and sure enough I have eaten Sapodillas before in Thailand. I think it may be a slightly different type of Sapodilla but still really similar.

A couple of days later I hit another market and this time got the orange fruit with the big brown seed. I have found out it is called a Mamey Sapotes and also should be eaten when it is soft.

I thought this fruit had a slightly cantaloupe flavor to it but it just may be the outside of the fruit felt like a cantaloupe to me so it was on my mind. I did enjoy this fruit and honestly I enjoy the whole process of buying stuff I don't know what I am buying or how you are suppose to eat it.

My little fruity adventures.