Update on the mystery gooseberry

I asked half a dozen Chinese people if they could identify the mystery green fruit I had bought previously at the fruit and vegetable stall on the corner of Campbell Street and Serangoon Road next to The Verge shopping mall skyscraper.

The Chinese people I asked could not identify the fruit.

I asked an Indian man. He said the fruits grow on bushes all over Singapore, both wild and cultivated. he said he could not tell me the name of the fruit in English. I asked how you cook the small rock hard fruit with the even harder stone in the centre. He said you cut out the stone and cut the fruit into tiny pieces and serve it in a savoury sauce as a side dish. "Any Indian women can tell you," he assured me.

I went back to the stall where we had bought the fruit and asked the seller, "What is this fruit called?"

He said, "Gooseberry!"

I asked how you cook it.

He said you eat it raw.

If you know more, please tell me.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.