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I dont know if the papaya you guys are eating over in the US are the same as here in australia, but the locally grown ones are right near the top of my favourite fruits. I have been trying more and more of the "exotic fruits" lately from locally grown farms, things like soursop, yellow sapote, jabotica and a few others and none of them even come close to what is sold here locally as "red papya" the only thing that compares for me so far to papaya is lychees and rambutan.
I remember eating papayas many years ago in California that were sent from Mexico. They were large watermelon sized, tasted very bland, and had nauseating smell. Found papayas repulsive until i moved to Hawaii and ate some of the solo types grown here. There is a huge diversity of quality in papayas! We have a Strawberry Red type here that is especially delicious. The real name is Solo Sunrise.
I think the flavor may be more variety dependent instead of climate because I had a papaya grown nearby that was so good and tasted like a really good melon. Every other papaya I’ve here had has had that nauseating smell that Oscar described.
Use green papaya to tenderize meat
Papaya definitely can get a bad/funky taste down here in the Miami area, but were are not truly tropical. Best I've had ripe was Red Lady.
Quote from: Gone tropo on October 11, 2020, 07:59:23 PMI remember eating papayas many years ago in California that were sent from Mexico. They were large watermelon sized, tasted very bland, and had nauseating smell. Found papayas repulsive until i moved to Hawaii and ate some of the solo types grown here. There is a huge diversity of quality in papayas! We have a Strawberry Red type here that is especially delicious. The real name is Solo Sunrise.Oscar do you think maybe they need a truly tropical climate to get the right taste?? i have never heard of papaya having a bad smell or any such things. Your climate in hawaii and certainly here 16 south is a lot more tropical than mainland USA including florida. What is sold here as red papaya (possibly similar to what you have in hawaii?) is one of the sweetest nicest tasting fruits i have come across certianly no funny smell to them or anything like that.
I think the flavor may be more variety dependent instead of climate because I had a papaya grown nearby that was so good and tasted like a really good melon. Every other papaya I’ve here had has had that nauseating smell that Oscar described. I tried planting some of the seeds from that fruit but they all ended up being male. At the time I didn’t know of the methods that some people have successfully used to change the sex of the papaya plant.I was told that the original seeds for the melon tasting papaya came from Thailand. I’ve been searching for that variety for a while with no luck.