Cameo apples – Pop Your Cherry

It’s always an adventure when Keith offers to stop by Whole Foods on the way home from work. Don’t get me wrong — I greatly appreciate the help with the grocery shopping, but somehow, things seem to get jumbled up in the translation of my grocery list into Keith-Speak. Sometimes, it will be something annoying like bringing home the brand of spelt pretzels that we all hate; this time, though, he brought us home a pleasant surprise.

When I told Keith to come home with any organic apple but red delicious (yuck!), I thought he’d saunter in with some gala, pink lady or maybe even granny smith. Living in New England, you’d think we would have tried just about every apple known to man during our autumn apple-picking sprees, but you’d be wrong. Keith brought me home American cameo apples. Embarrassing — I’ve never even heard of them, let alone tried one before!

So naturally, I googled them, and I immediately felt much better about being a New Englander who’d never tried a cameo apple. Apparently, American cameo apples are a relatively new variety (1998) from Washington state. I’m not a total loser after all, championing local food like I do.

Cameo apples have the most delightful texture of any apple I’ve had: very crunchy, almost popping right off the core into your mouth, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Crisp and juicy, not tough or mealy like some apples can be. I really, really love the crispness of these apples.

What I missed, though, was the tartness I enjoy in an apple. My favorite apples are pink lady, with just that little bit of a bite to give the taste some dimension. Cameo apples were all sweet and juicy goodness, but kind of flat tasting. Maybe I’d enjoy an underripe one better?

I’d eat a cameo apple again in a heartbeat, because the texture can’t be beat. It won’t take the honored position of my favorite apple, but it’s got a place, to be sure.

Have you ever tried cameo apples? What do you think?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Apr 22, 2009 @ 13:50 EST5EDT