Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
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You missed out!
It took me 4 years to discover certain fruits, and the Bora berry was one of them.
When you come to Goa for a vacation, you end up mostly on the beach hanging out or partying.
Your head is all over the place, you get Sussegad and dreamy, enjoying the sun and culture.
I was definitely not a foodie when I first landed in Goa, we'll back then I was enjoying my independence and a new world, spicy food wasn't my thing, and I was never much of a fruit eater either.
Yeah, it's true, but all this changed. I stopped vacationing and became an immigrant, married into a new life and experienced good and bad times. The summers in Goa are very harsh and torturing.
That's when I rediscovered fruits again and ventured into new unknown organic fruit adventures.
What's the Bora Berry?
There is this Bora berry, common to be found at roadsides and on the hills, a little brown reddish tuff looking berry.
Children traveling walking back home after school, usually plug them and eat them fresh, sometimes even with some salt on the berry.
It's all over the place growing on thorny trees and I hadn't seen it!
Well, it wasn't entirely my fault because it isn't sold like other fruits in the market, rarely you might see some local ladies selling it in big baskets on roadsides or bus stops.
Bora berry, also called Jujube date, is a small reddish berry with thick skin, white sticky flesh, and a seed core.
The drier the berry gets, the more difficult it is to eat it, as it gets harder in age.
It has a strong fragrance which some might not like, but the taste of the bora berry is entirely different, very pleasing.
When you chew one berry, you'll realize why it is called Jujube date too, the taste comes very close to dates.
The plant itself requires suns and grows perfectly in a hot climate and on poor grounds.
Uses
In Goa, it is mostly eaten as snack fresh or sometimes even dried in between or after your main meal.
Nobody uses the fruit in any different culinary way. I honestly wouldn't know if it would make sense in a cake or part as a fruit salad.
In my research, I found that other Asian countries used it as tea syrup.
It would be nice to try out recipe ideas with this unusual berry.
