On a mission of no hitting and kicking, we walked through the fruit and vege section. It was there that a red, plump, round and juicy fruit caught my boys' eyes and they harped on and on for so long that I gave in and bought them one each.
Yes folks, it was the humble but mightily expensive tamarillo. My boys had never tried one before and it takes a pretty strong parent to deny your child some fruit, so into the trolley two of them went.
When we got home I regaled them with tamarillo memories of mine, such as you can also call them tree tomatoes, and that good friends of mine had a tree tomato tree so we used to eat a lot of them.
As a kid you eat things that your friends like, just to be cool too. It's a special "gross foods" bonding if you will.
That's how I came to devour my fair share of tree tomatoes in the 1980s, with eight teaspoons of sugar on each half because that was the only way I could stomach them.
Now it was my children's turn. They cut these big boys in half, sniffed them, licked them, screwed their nose up at the sight of them, took the tiniest taste of them and dry retched all the way to the sink.
Not big fans. And so it was left to their Dad, who cannot stand tamarillos but also cannot stand food waste even more, to grimace his way through them.
Thankfully, I won't ever have to buy them again. I'll just stick with Chupa Chups.
_ Megan Banks
