Fragosika, cactus, or fruit? Fruit on a cactus!
In markets abroad, and recently in our country, you can buy fragosika, a type of cactus originally from Mexico but widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean.
I don't know if this unusual fruit is the most popular summer fruit in some countries, but considering of its benefits, you should at least try it because it cures diabetes, lowers cholesterol, and is also an excellent source of calcium, potassium, vitamin C, and magnesium.
I tried it for the first time when I was a child, and one of my favorite aunts - Olga, told me in the vernacular language that it was called "mother-in-law's tongue"... Now, did my aunt had some evil mother-in-law with a wicked and prickly tongue, so she independently and imaginatively gave this name to this unusual plant, or is it called like that by the people in certain parts of Montenegro, I would not be able to say for sure.Anyway, after more than three decades I found fragosika in a local market in Lefkada. It was in a package, nicely packed, without thorns, for due to the passage of time, I completely forgot that existed and adorned this fruit.
That summer, I remembered the taste from my childhood and then completely forgot about the strange fragosika again.
A few years later, on a trip through Messinia along the edges of endless olive groves, I saw again the fragosika, which grows wild over there in a completely natural environment. And since of course there is nothing more beautiful or natural than picking fruit in nature, I started picking it with my bare hands and went through what our people would say "like walking barefoot through thorns".
Nature is amazing, so it endowed this delicacy with thorns, almost hair-thin, that are invisible to the naked eye, so picking this fruit should be done with great care and skill so you don't end up like me. With a fist full of tingles!
In order to eat this fruit, the skin should be removed by cutting off both ends, then make a vertical slit along the body, hold it with a fork and roll it out. The flesh of the fragosika has a lot of hard, tiny seeds in the middle that are edible, and the texture of the flesh itself is somewhat spongy and soft.
Fragosika is completely unusual because of its almost floral syrupy taste that leaves in the mouth - sweet and juicy, between pear, fig and watermelon.
If eaten fresh, it is best when cooled, and it can also be used for preparing syrups and jams.
What is interesting is that all the above-ground parts of this plant are edible, so you can use the flower petals of fragosika as decorations in salads, the cushion can be eaten as a vegetable, and the fruit itself, as we mentioned earlier, as a fruit.
The use of fragosika creates favorable conditions for strengthening immunity, so it's a shame not to try it.
You will find the post about rakia in the tastes of Serbia HERE... and you can read about the delicious pasticio by clicking on THIS link.
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