EBEN, EBE

The picture below is of a fruit found only, I believe, in south eastern Nigeria. It is not cultivated and grows wild. It is a tree fruit. It is about as big as a thumb and has a unique flavour - absolutely delicious. Beneath the purple skin is an avocado-colored flesh surrounding a large pit. Neither the skin nor the pit are eaten.

It is prepared by pouring boiling water over the fruits and letting them steep for about 20 minutes. This softens the flesh. One then bites the skin off one end and sucks the flesh out after dusting it with a little salt. It is tart and savory and unlike any other flavor. With cold beer it is a memory of that part of the world I will always treasure. The fruits are called ebe (in the Oron language) and eben in Efik, the lingua franca of the area. These are also the words for breast in the respective languages and I have been told that the fruit is so named because of the way that one sucks the flesh as if it were a nipple.

This photo and the information were sent in by website Member Brian.

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