Lúcuma ice cream at a Baskin Robbins near you!

Thanks to the Amazon it shares with Brazil, Peru has many varieties of fruits and vegetables that are totally new to me. 

This one is called lúcuma (LOU-cou-ma). 

It's has a sweet flavor and it's meat's texture is more like hard-boiled egg yolk than anything else I can think of. 

I, personally, wasn't a fan of the fruit itself but I do like lúcuma-flavored things. 

For example, I've fallen in love with the quantity and variety of drinkable yogurts they have here. Peruvians drink their yogurt like there's no tomorrow. They sell it by the liter. 

Among the eight liters I drank the week I discovered them are a few of lúcuma (right front, for example):

Interestingly, Wikipedia (ha!) tells me that Peruvians prefer lúcuma-flavored ice cream over the traditional strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. 

I can actually believe that; we were at an ice cream shop and a little boy who was waiting in line kept staring at me (it's the blonde hair, I hope). So I asked him what he was going to order.

"One scoop lúcuma, one scoop strawberry," he said. After that, I paid attention and nearly all the little kids there ordered lúcuma with something else.

Looks like they're growing this friendly fruit in parts of California and Florida. Prepare yourself--any day now, lúcuma ice cream will be invading a Baskin Robbins near you!