Caimitos, Cherimoyas and Squid Balls

‘Twas another night of wonderful food at Lao Sze Chuan last night.

This time, we tried something different and ordered the Hot Pot in which a cauldron of boiling, highly-flavored stock is placed on the table. Then lots and lots of raw food items are brought out along with various dipping sauces and you get to dip your selections into the stock and sort of design your own meal. Sort of like the Szechuan version of fondue.

It was a huge amount of food. Here is one plate of food consisting of:
Greens, shrimp, squid, tripe, tofu, tofu skins, fish filets, squid balls, fish balls, mussels and bok choy.

Here is the cauldron with two types of tasty stuff boiling away.

Not pictured is a platter of sliced beef and lamb. It arrived much later for some unknown reason.
Our friend, Ken, is a fan of tropical fruits and he had just received a shipment of caimitos and cherimoyas from California which he very graciously shared with us.

What is a caimito you ask?

What is a cherimoya? I hear you say.

Okay, I’ll show you.

Here is a photo of a caimito (the little fruit) and the cherimoya. Mark Twain once wrote that a cherimoya is “the most delicious fruit known to men.” I might have to agree with him.

It has a white, custard-like flesh that tastes like a combination of bananas, pineapples and strawberries with a very perfumey sensation. I loved it and will buy one whenever I see them.

The little caimito, on the other hand, had a very subtle taste sort of like rose water. However, once cut open, it looked pretty scary.

Afterward, we had our usual durian fruit smoothies. I even asked the server if I could taste a piece of pure durian fruit and I have to say that it was so unbelievably vile, it made me laugh uncontrollably.

Tripe, squid balls, caimitos, cherimoyas and durian.

What a wonderful evening.