Zanzibar style Fruit Salad

Back in the days in Zanzibar when you utter the word fruit this is what you would get, a mashed papaya with chopped crunchy fruits and may be if its a special day or you are special enough then it will be topped with ice cream and its heaven on earth!!!

How this combination of various fruits is label just "fruit' is a mystery to me because all other  are known by their own respective names. In short this is what can be called fruit salad.May be it was meant to be called

" Fruits" and the "s" disappeared in the fruits.

Fruit was always a special thing for me as a child, we were treated with this only on Sundays or special occasions. It was always made at home of course but we never had ice cream containers in our freezers, however, the ice cream kiosk at Frorodhani served only fruit with ice cream and I think it was only one flavor ice cream they served then , Vanilla.

Forodhani is an open park located along the main walk of stone town and partially facing the beautiful Indian Ocean. Forodhani is the happening place in the evenings for the locals and the tourists when you are in Zanzibar. There is no special season or reason for one to visit Forodahani. 

As a child every evening we visited the park and enjoyed the Zanzibari street food as well as the well known Swahili delicacies under the beautiful sun set. Its a kind of peaceful atmosphere , a place were friends and loved ones met and exchanged greetings and a fashion parade for women to flaunt their latest styles in clothes, jewelries , shoes etc.

Forodhani always stays live with crowd till late evenings but for us children , we used to rush home as soon as we heard the sound of the fired cannon at every dusk, this coincided with the evening prayer time as well.

So much about the venue and not my fruit, so here we go.

Please note Papaya makes the base of the fruit salad, the rest of the fruits are as per your preference

Ingredients:

1 medium size papaya - peeled and sliced

1 orange - peeled ,cut into small pieces

2 Bananas - peeled , sliced, please squeeze lemon to prevent it from discoloring

1 Apple - Peeled , sliced into small pieces , squeeze some lemon/lime to prevent from discoloring

1 Cucumber , peeled , sliced into small cubes

Sugar and lemon are optional

For the method, please click on the video below