Fruits of the Philippines (Doreen G. Fernandez)

About Fruits: “It is not only the taste, or the freshness, but especially the memories, the beliefs, the associations — the whole cultural package — that makes the fruit more than food.”

Which Fruits?: “We decided that we would keep within the embrace of a layman’s definition. Although a fruit is indeed ‘a product of plant growth useful to men and to animals,’ we would not include grain and vegetables, but only those generally identified as bungangkahoy, bunga, or prutas, generally edible without cooking, often used as dessert or squeezed into juice or cooked into sweets… Each fruit would be identified first by its local names, then by its English name and by its leaves and flowers, but especially its fruit, how it is eaten, how it tastes, and how it figures in the culture (in folklore, in folk belief: its medicinal uses if any). We want to present pictures and drawings of the fruits in order to introduce them to the young, to foreigners, and to those who had not experienced them.”

This book also includes traditional and new recipes that use the fruits mentioned in the book.