The Rise of Citrus Maxima
As the rains slowly recede from the city, rickety carts weighed down by pyramids of bulbous pomelos begin to sprout roadside. The slightly elusive fruit has long had a case of mistaken identity, often being confused for a melon due to its hard covering or being paralleled to a grapefruit due to its juicy flesh. The pomelo however is larger than an average grapefruit and is in fact the largest citrus in the family — rightly earning it the name of Citrus Maxima. Locally know as Chakotta or Chakotra, it is also identified as Shaddock, as an ode to the 17th century Captain Shaddock that transported its seeds from the Malay Peninsula to the West Indies on an East India Company Ship.
Pomelo is a massive fruit with a thick stubborn bright green rind that parts to reveal an abundance of red succulent flesh. It’s easy to scoop out once the herculean task of cutting it open has been achieved, and it explodes on your taste buds with a mix of sweet and sour flavors, and a hit of acidity that leaves you craving for more. The tang does superbly well with a sprinkle of chili and salt.
My first encounter with the unusual fruit was when Chef Thomas Zacharias, Executive Chef at The Bombay Canteen, introduced the Pomelo Pago Salad to the restaurant’s menu. The salad was a deceptively simple one that balanced flavors and textures to complement the seasonal fruit and tuned it’s inherent bitterness to a palatable volume that left people diving in for another bite. Chef Thomas drew inspiration from the Thai Pomelo Salad, and the dish’s final form was shaped by a #Chefontheroad trip to Odisha. He says, “I tried the dried mango (ambula) accompaniment they make and it tasted a lot like a Thai salad dressing, and that’s how I put two and two together”. Often used to offset the bitter taste of the fruit, salads like the Thai Yum Sum-O include alternating bursts of spice, sweetness, and umami. At The Bombay Canteen, the salad juxtaposed the sharp acidity of the fruit with crunch from peanuts, heat from chilies, and a spicy freshness from seasonal ajwain leaves. The pomelo was cleverly macerated in lime juice to round the bitterness, and the ambula dressing then tied all the elements into a cohesive bowl of flavors.
From its native South-East Asia to its adopted home of India, pomelo has historically never been in the limelight. It’s sluggish rise to popularity is owed to the varietal of the Devanahalli Pomelo that grows around rural Bengaluru. Kerehaklu, an estate in Chikmaglur, grows two varieties of pomelos — Devanahalli and Honey — pomelos. Pranoy is currently running the Kerehaklu estate that has been in their family for the past 60 years, and the estate intercrops pomelo with coffee, with the fruits resembling jackfruit in the sheer size, as they can grow up to 2 kilos. He is often faced with a slew of questions regarding the fruit. He says, “People ask me what to do with it and how to cut it — my idea is to show them recipes.” He recalls his friend eating the local Robab Tenga in Assam after marinating it in mustard oil, but the pomelo-recipe posts on Kerehaklu’s Instagram is a testament to the versatility of the fruit.
While the Devanahlli Pomelo was awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2009, the efforts to preserve it head far back. The story has it that Mahatma Gandhi visited Nandi Hills (a fortress expanded by Tipu Sultan) and tasted the previously unknown Pomelo. He loved the fruit and ordered for it to be saved, resulting in a rigorous exercise of grafts and saplings being distributed to farmers in the area. Each farmer ended up with a few trees on the border of their farms, but in recent times the development of the Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru resulted in farmers selling their lands and a consequent decline in the cultivation of the fruits. Like many other areas, native produce continued to become rarer as a result of urbanization and large-scale agriculture projects that are tailored to meet the demand for more mainstream produce.
In the years following, the threat of extinction loomed over the fruit leading to Bangalore International Limited (BIAL) launching a project to conserve & restore Pomelos as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. Indian Express reports that this project includes the largest pomelo orchard, empowering self-help groups, and tree-grafting drives.
While pomelos do have the signature sweet and sour taste, the Devanahalli Pomelos are significantly less bitter. When asked if he prefers the Devanahalli or the Honey Pomelos, Pranoy has a clear favorite, “The Honey Pomelo is greenish yellow on the inside and the flavor profile isn’t sweet, it is bittersweet tangy, similar to the Mosambi. I prefer Devanahalli since it has more complexity which allows me to use it differently. Some like the Honey (Pomelo) because it’s slightly sweet so they can juice it, along with oranges possibly.”
While the citrus continues to gain presence in restaurants and households alike, we can thank the series of events that have led to its eventual conservation. While urbanization and expansion threatened its existence, nudges and prodding in the right places have led to an effort to preserve the ruby-red sweet varietal. The rise of a forgotten fruit lends hope to many farmers that have faced dwindling demand for local produce, as well as adopted varieties that have adapted wonderfully to the local soil. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of an approach that looks at a resurgence of our indigenous produce. After all, the sweetest fruits are often found in our own backyard.
