29. Our Daily Breadfruit
According to some accounts, the breadfruit tree was brought to the Caribbean by slave traders to feed their clients’ unpaid workers. The tree grows quickly and bears 25 or more fruit, each of which is larger than a grapefruit. That’s a lot of free starch!
The problem was that the slaves didn’t want to eat it. The breadfruit is of Polynesian origin, not African, but the slave owners didn’t know that. Indeed 1000 breadfruit saplings were part of the cargo of Captain Bligh’s Bounty (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame) when it departed Tahiti. Those trees never made it.
Other trees did and breadfruit was quickly adopted into Caribbean cuisine. In Puerto Rico panapén, a word usually shortened to pana, quickly became naturalized. And with good reason. The boiled unripe fruit tastes much like a potato and the slightly ripening fruit when baked smells like bread (pan is the Spanish word for bread).
Today, throughout the tropics, there are hundreds of names for breadfruit and the dishes made from it, and countless manners of preparing it. In Puerto Rico it is peeled and cored and the firm, creamy-white flesh is boiled, fried or baked in a variety of dishes: among them tostones, rellenos, and lasagna de pana. It even appears as a dessert in breadfruit custard and at least one chef in San Juan serves up breadfruit ice cream.
Heakening back to its humble origins, many (including my family) simply boil it and serve it hot with a glass of cold milk for lunch: Puerto Rican comfort food.
It may be human nature to be wary of unfamiliar foods. When I first moved to the island I readily took to rice and beans (and the aromatic artistry of arroz con pollo), but it took me a long time to try pasteles — think tamales — because they are really ugly. Now I know they are really good. I also was wary of avocados; I soon got over that! But I never had a problem with breadfruit.
Trying new foods, like meeting new people or learning another language, takes courage, but it can bring new dimension (and wonderful new flavors) into life.
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