Passionfruit Maracuja ice cream

I love collecting favorite words as much as I love creating ice cream and identifying new flavors.  Passionfruit, Maracuja, and Lilikoi are among my favorite words, and they all describe the same tart, mysterious fruit.  The tropical, sour flavor pairs perfectly with sweet, creamy homemade ice cream.

Before I had ever tasted passionfruit, the name intrigued me.  From the outside, the dark purple - almost black - fruit looked unappetizing.  When split open, the dark plum-sized fruits bear a bright yellow mess of seed-filled gooey nectar when split open.  I find this yellow fruit too sour and crunchy to eat on its own.  But as Jean George says in describing his Passionfruit Pavlova recipe, "the more shriveled they are, the sweeter the juice."

On the beaches of Rio de Janiero, I discovered maracuja caipirinas. In Hawaii, I made lilikoi cream puffs.  Many other countries love this fruit, too: in Mexico it is eaten raw with chilli powder and lime, and in Thailand young shoots are cooked in curries or eaten with nam phrik.  In many places, from Israel to Peru, Portugal, and South Africa, passionfruit is used to flavor alcoholic beverages.

But back to favorite words...  I highly recommend that you create a list of favorite and most despised words.  This list at www.myfavoriteword.com may help you started.