Our Walkabout

WOW!!! Check it out, I am learning to blog… Last night we had a fun new experience.  We had seen carts along the street selling small green fuzzy pod-like things and had no idea what they were.   While dining at Hasanaga Restaurant the waiter brought out a fruit plate for dessert with the funny green fuzzy pods on the plate.  The waiter could tell we were puzzled and tried to describe in his best English translation what they were.  We figured out they were raw almonds.  From my days at Cal Poly I had learned about “amonds” (when almonds are harvested, the “l” gets shaken out of them) but I had not yet heard of eating green raw almonds.  So per the waiters suggestion, we chomped down into the mysterious green “fruit”. Have you ever tasted an apricot before it is ripe?  The pods were very tart and with a tough rind to them as well.  Sam was still not quite convinced that they were in fact almonds so he proceeded to try and cut one open with his knife and discovered that an unroasted almond is actually quite soft.  The chef was out in the restaurant, witnessed Sam’s slicing and immediately went back into the kitchen to fetch his own raw almond.  He stood at the end of our table (saying nothing) and chomped into the green almond to show us how it’s done.  It was pretty funny that Sam was busted trying to figure out this new “fruit”.  I can say we were both glad that we did not purchase an entire bag of these from a street vendor because after eating one or two we were done!