How to Eat Keneps…

Does anyone know how to put an accent on top of letters in Windows Live Writer?  I know how to do it in Word, but I can’t find it here.  It’s driving me crazy!  I’m sure if Rob was here, he’d show me right away and make it look easy.  Anyway, both e’s in the word kenep should have an accent on it to be spelled (and therefore, pronounced) correctly.  Moving on…

It’s kenep season here in Haiti. They can be found in almost every little “booth” that has fresh produce for sale. What is a kenep (pronounced keh-nehp), you ask?  There is no real comparison to a fruit found in the US, so I will try to describe it for you.  There is also a certain way to eat them, that Tessa will help me demonstrate.

We were introduced to keneps on our trip here this time last year.  Rob loves them; I can take them or leave them.  They taste kind of like a tart, green grape, but the texture is not like that at all.  I think it’s the texture you either love or hate.  I think they have a slimy texture, but Rob disagrees with me.   It is essentially a big seed with a little juicy, fleshy part around it and you chew/suck it off, then spit it out.

Here is a bowl of keneps.  You buy them in little bundles from the vendors.

Here is how you eat them.

Step one: pick off a kenep

Step two:  bite into the skin, just to split the skin in half

the skin looks like a citrus skin, but it pops off cleanly

 

Step 3:  pop off half the skin so it looks like this like this

note the fruit inside

Step 4:  pop the fruit out of the rest of the skin and into your mouth

Step 5:  suck on it and chew on it like a piece of hard candy

Note: you are just trying to suck on and chew on the fleshy outer part.

Step 6:  when you you are done chewing and you only have the seed left, spit out the seed

Tessa tends to spit them out before they are really finished :)

Rob and Tessa LOVE them.  It took Drew a while to try them—he insisted he didn’t want to try them at first.  He likes them as well, although it’s Tessa I have to watch out for!  I’ve found her sneaking a few when I’m not looking.  Yes, my 4-year-old has a spit cup :)

~Becky