Guava. A fruit with the external appearance of an apple or pear. The large, pale, yellow-skinned, pear-shaped ones are the best. They have a very strong smell.
Galangal. The rhizome of a plant of the ginger family, although it is smaller and more shrivelled. It has more translucent, flesh-coloured skin than the rhizome of ginger. It is peeled and grated or thinly sliced and used in the same way that fresh ginger is used, but has a slightly more complex flavour reminiscent of camphor. Greater galangal resembles a cross between ginger and pepper; lesser galangal is more pungent, with cardamom and eucalyptus flavours, whilst kempferia is the strongest.
Papaya. There is great discussion about the difference between papaya and paw paw or papaw. Essentially, they are all the same thing. It just depends where you are. The size of a large avocado, it has soft-textured, fragrant, apricot-coloured flesh with small black seeds which must be stripped out. It is a great breakfast fruit. If you have an unripe papaya which you wish to ripen overnight, pierce it with a sharp knife several times. It should be cut lengthways as this facilitates the removal of the seeds.
