The poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan’s father, wrote thus in his four-volume autobiography: Sardiyon ki alsaai dopahar mein Ilahabad ke amrood kuchh alag hi maza dete hain. Unka swaad aur badh jaata hai jab aap chaat masale ke saath amrood ki phaankon ka aanand uthate hain (The famed guavas of Allahabad make the languid afternoons of winter all the more tastily memorable when you relish slices of guava with chaat-masala sprinkled on them). This he wrote to his contemporary, the Hindi poet Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, who was equally fond of guavas. He wrote back: Ek haath mein amrood aur doosremein qalam (Guava in one hand and a pen in the other...).
This winter fruit has many takers because of its quaint taste. Though not exactly a sub-continental fruit (it came from Mexico and Central America), the best and tastiest guavas in India and Pakistan are available in Allahabad and Kohat (NWFP, Pakistan) respectively. The Guatemala variety of Central America is good for westerners. The Allahabad variety is called Amrood ke shaayqeen ki pahli pasand (the first preference of the connoisseurs of guavas). This variety is light green or faint yellow in colour, with red spots. They make a crackling sound when you bite into them, just like the apples of Himachal Pradesh when the teeth sink into the pulp. Genuine lovers of Amrood are of the view that the variety that has red spots tastes the best, and that they taste even better when you sprinkle salt (especially rock salt), pepper or chaat masala on the slices.
Second best
The Kohat variety is tasty but can only play second fiddle to the guavas of Allahabad. Guava is considered the winter fruit of Pakistan. Urdu poet Raghupati Sahay ‘Firaq’ Gorakhpuri, who hailed from Allahabad and taught English and Urdu at Allahabad varsity, penned a long poem, rather an ode to guavas: Amrood ki tahseen mein (In praise of guavas). In this poem, Firaq tried to prove that guava was a better and tastier fruit than mango, which he didn’t like very much.
Jawaharlal Nehru loved guavas. So did his muse, Edwina Mountbatten. Nehru had a guava orchard near Naini, 6 km from Allahabad. He would send the juiciest hand-picked guavas to the Viceroy’s spouse. When Nehru was incarcerated at the Naini jail during the freedom struggle, the English Superintendent of Police, Neil Asquen, would see to it that Nehru got the guavas from his own orchard. The best guavas come from December 15 to January 15.
Guavas with white pulp taste better than those with red pulp. Round-shaped ones are tastier than the elongated ones. It’s one fruit that goes well with fish dishes. Yours truly came across a dish in Athens that comprised slices of guava and salmon/haddox fillets dressed in olive oil. The mildly pungent taste of guava makes fish dishes tastier. Many Portuguese preparations use guava juice: it softens shellfish, lobsters, prawns and crabs.
There’s a Turkish perfume that mixes filtered guava essence, its fragrance so fruity and lingering. Lastly, people of Persia (Iran) consider it to be an aphrodisiac with no side-effects ( A’la beneer mustaqeema ). So, lusty men can try this from that perspective as well!
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