messy but healthy?

Soursop before ripe

Cruising different islands in the Caribbean not only gives us the chance to see fascinating places, meet interesting people and learn about their culture and history but also to taste food we haven't heard of before. We love to try the specialties, stroll through markets and stores to get a feeling of what's grown locally. And there was a fruit we have read and heard of so much but never had a chance to taste it - it was almost like a myth: the Soursop (also called Graviola, Guanàbana, Pawpaw etc.)
In Chris Doyle's guidebook it says: "It is a knobby green fruit which is ripe when it begins to go soft. It is really delicious, but messy to eat because of all the seeds. It can be blended with a little milk and ice to make an excellent drink." A friend even told us that this fruit has the power to prevent or even heal cancer! That made us really curious!  (I found different articles regarding this matter in the web but want leave it to you to make up your mind if this sources are credible or not. I'll add some links at the end of this post.)
When I next went to the market I chose one of this quite ugly looking fruits. It was heavy and not yet ripe. But after 2-3 days it changed its color and went soft. That's what it looked like:

ripe after 2-3 days

It was time to have a look inside. I cut it in half and a peculiar smell filled the air. The flesh tasted of a mixture of strawberry and pineapple with a sour twist and its consistency was very creamy, like mashed banana. But as mentioned it was difficult to eat because of all the black seeds and after a couple of spoons I had enough anyway.

Soursop pulp with seeds

So, there was still more than half a Soursop left and I didn't want to throw it away. I decided to mix it into a milkshake. There was just one little problem - I didn't have a blender... Whatever, I started to peel all the seeds out of the pulp, by hand! Phew, that took some time and looked like this:

Soursop pulp without seeds

Achieved this I then added 1/2 liter of milk, little sugar, some lime juice and crushed ice cubes. From the mixing process I didn't take any pictures as I turned the galley just in a mess! I tried it with a mixer, pressed the pulp through a strainer, then whisking it again. OK, there's still space for improvement! BUT, after some sweaty work the drink looked like a Milkshake:

Soursop milkshake

 And it tasted like a milkshake with the peculiar flavor of Soursop!

 Mmhhhh.... cool and creamy, that was well deserved!

My conclusion: I really should get a blender! In contrary to its effect on cancer it's obviously a proven fact that this fruit contains significant amounts of vitamin C, B1, B2 and is used as a herbal medicine among people where the plant is growing to treat a variety of infections and diseases. And it's tasty.
Pure natural power!

With love from paradise
Rahel

Here some links, without liability :
Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242555-Soursop-Fruit-Kills-Cancer-100-Fold-better-Than-Chemotherapy
cancertutor.com: http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/Graviola.html
searchdominica.com: http://searchdominica.com/health/soursop-graviola-guanabana/
wirkstofflexikon.com: http://www.wirkstofflexikon.com/data/de/Graviola.html