Custard apple. Sitaphal. A tropical fruit which comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. When buying choose very soft fruits indeed. The skin of all of them is green or purplish-green and scaly, almost fir-cone patterned, in appearance. Inside, the flesh is creamy in colour and consistency, but has to be sucked from the shiny black seeds. The flesh has a sweet-sour flavour, sometimes slightly custardy and larger ones have the luscious and complex taste of banana, mango and vanilla. They are often made into fritters, or sliced and steeped in wine. The custard apples include cherimoyas, sweet sops, sour sops and atemoyas. In Thailand it is in season from June to September.
