atemoya

1. A conical or heart-shaped green fruit with edible sweet white flesh.
2. The tree producing this fruit, a hybrid between the cherimoya and the sweetsop.

[Philippine English ates, sweetsop (from Tagalog atis) + (CHERI)MOYA.]

[ah-teh-MOH-ee-yah] Though cultivated in Florida, this cross between cherimoya and sweetsop is a native of South America and the West Indies. About the size of a large bell pepper, the atemoya has a tough dusty green skin that has a rough petal configuration. The custardlike pulp is cream-colored and studded with a smattering of large black seeds. Its delicate, sweet flavor tastes like a blend of mango and vanilla. Atemoyas are in season from late summer through late fall. Though they often split slightly at their stem end when ripe, it's best to buy them when they're pale green and tender with unbroken skin. The fruit can continue to ripen at room temperature at home. Refrigerate ripe atemoyas 3 to 5 days. They're best served chilled. Simply halve the fruit, spoon out the pulp and enjoy. Atemoyas are high in potassium and vitamins C and K.

Atemoya
Left: Taiwanese "pineapple shijia" (Atemoya, a hybrid of sugar-apple and cherimoya); Right: Regular Taiwanese shijia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Magnoliids
Order:	Magnoliales
Family:	Annonaceae
Genus:	Annona
Species:	A. ×atemoya
Binomial name
Annona ×atemoya Mabb.

The atemoya, Annona ×atemoya, is a cross between two tropical fruits – the sweetsop (Annona squamosa) and the cherimoya (Annona cherimola) – which are both native fruits of the tropical Americas. This fruit is popular in Taiwan where it is known as the "pineapple sweetsop" (鳳梨釋迦) and is sometimes mistaken for a cross between the sweetsop and the pineapple. In Cuba this fruit is called mamon, and in Venezuela chirimorinon. In Lebanon the fruit is called "Achta" and is used in many Lebanese deserts including ice cream.

An atemoya is normally heart-shaped or rounded, with pale-green, easily-bruised, bumpy skin. It is very juicy and smooth, with the white flesh tasting slightly sweet and a little tart, reminiscent of a Piña Colada. The taste also resembles vanilla.^[1] There are many inedible black seeds throughout the flesh of the atemoya. The seeds are toxic. ^[2] When ripe the fruit can be scooped out of the shell and eaten chilled.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Clarke, Joan (1998). "Hawai’i". in Feierabend, Peter; Chassman, Gary; Danforth, Randi. Culinaria: The United States: A Culinary Discovery. Köln, Germany: Könemann. pp. 476. ISBN 3-8290-0259-9. 
2. ^ Purdue New Crops Profile

This Annonaceae article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This fruit-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)