People LOVE this North American Fruit... in Vietnam - POND APPLE

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01][music] >> This is pond apple.

[00:00:08]Pond apple is a very interesting fruit that is native to the USA.

[00:00:14]However, in the US, most people don't know what it is. And the people who do know what it is usually don't like it.

[00:00:23]What if I told you that this North American fruit is popular in another country that is over 8,000 [music] miles away?

[00:00:34]In today's episode, I'll be traveling to Vietnam in order to try the pond apple.

[00:00:39]And I will also prepare it in the Vietnamese way to see how a neglected North American fruit can be turned into something delicious.

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[00:02:26]By these birds here, I have found a uh a fruit that I don't think I've ever had before.

[00:02:33]This is a kind of an annona. I think it might be pond apple.

[00:02:38]So, they look a bit like you know, like a cherimoya or like a sugar apple, but they're very smooth and uh heart-shaped.

[00:02:47]Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

[00:02:51]One fell.

[00:02:53]I think there's a ripe one.

[00:02:55]This here is the pond apple, and I'm really excited to have my hands on this because this is an annona fruit that I have not had, and I like annona fruits.

[00:03:05]There are many of them. There is uh the sugar apple, cherimoya, atemoya, custard apple, soursop, bunch of them. Very often they're all called the same thing because uh they sometimes can taste similar. Sometimes people call all of them custard apples.

[00:03:23]This is one that um people usually differentiate what this is, and that is because this is one that people don't usually especially like, which has made me even more intrigued because I want to know why people don't like this. Uh this is the only annona fruit that is actually native to North America, where I'm from. I believe in just Florida, also in Mexico and the Caribbean, but it's nifty that there is an annona fruit that grows in my country. And naturally, I found this in Vietnam. Uh I'm in Vietnam right now, where these are apparently also a thing.

[00:04:00]Uh and I think that might have something to do with these being a highly invasive plant. I believe in Sri Lanka and in Australia, this is considered a noxious weed.

[00:04:12]In Vietnam, uh people do eat them. Uh I've spoken to people here, and they said they do eat these fruits. So, um I'm going to eat it. Uh but first, let's take a quick moment to just appreciate it. I mean, it's really cool-looking.

[00:04:25]When I I got this, it had fallen off the tree, and it was green. After 2 days, it turned completely yellow. Uh it's got a little brown spot on it, but let's ignore that. And um yeah, this does have one use that people like this for, and that is uh rootstock.

[00:04:45]Th- These trees have gumption, you know, they they have moxie. They they want to grow. Because of that, they will use the uh roots of this and graft on fruits that are a little bit more popular, like soursops. It will be more resistant.

[00:05:00]Although I've heard that the soursops that are produced tend to be uh smaller.

[00:05:05]It produces tiny soursops. That's kind of fun. Uh another thing is that this has the nickname alligator apple, and that is because in Florida, alligators eat it.

[00:05:16]Let's open it. I lost my knife, but I have uh a dirty spoon. So, we're going to use that. I'm going to just go in here.

[00:05:24]It's soft, so I you don't need a knife.

[00:05:29]Use the back end of a dirty spoon if you need to.

[00:05:33]Oh, yeah. Look at that. That is uh kind of ugly.

[00:05:37]It's got like a apple cider kind of smell to it.

[00:05:46]The flavor of that is like apples.

[00:05:49]Not very good apples. It's kind of mealy, a little bit sticky in texture, like an overcooked boiled potato.

[00:06:00]Sweetness on it is kind of low, but not terrible. Maybe like a three out of 10.

[00:06:05]Tartness on it, also pretty low. Maybe like a two. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, cuz people like really don't like this thing. It's just like not really that good on its own.

[00:06:20]Well, everybody, I am back in New York City, and guess what?

[00:06:24]I have a whole bunch of pond apples.

[00:06:28]How I ended up with 10 lbs of pond apples is that I bought these wholesale from a Vietnamese importer.

[00:06:38]Just let that sink in.

[00:06:40]>> [laughter] >> This is basically considered to be a weed in the United States. Besides like some foragers who appreciate this fruit, it is pretty much unknown. It's pretty much ignored. Somehow, these made their way to other countries, probably because it's an invasive plant, and it made its way to Vietnam. In Vietnam, these have become naturalized, but also people, instead of treating them like a weed, treated them as something that you can eat.

[00:07:10]And they like them. They like them enough to grow them commercially. You can even buy some packaged products that have pond apple in them. It is a popular thing there. So popular that Vietnamese immigrants in the USA miss this fruit enough to have them imported from Vietnam to the US, where they are native.

[00:07:37]This is a bizarre thing. The too long, didn't read version of this is that I just spent over $100 on a bunch of fruit that is basically considered to be a weed in the United States of America. We truly live in a very interesting world.

[00:07:55]Because pond apples are so popular in Vietnam, I thought that I would look into why that is. How are people using this? You know, I had it earlier out of hand, and I didn't have an incredible experience. It was okay. In Vietnam, people don't eat them out of hand usually. They make things out of them.

[00:08:14]The most basic way that people eat this in Vietnam is that they will cut it up, mix it with sugar and ice, and eat it as a cooling dessert. So, we'll try it that way first.

[00:08:32]Okay. So, here we have one that is uh nice and ripe, nice yellow color. You know, when they are green, they are too hard, but then over time, they soften. That's one way to tell that they're ripe.

[00:08:48]Another way to tell is that they'll start to crack.

[00:08:51]Uh once they crack, you got to eat it like right away, because otherwise it's going to get overripe, and we don't want that. Another little trick that I learned from watching some YouTube videos from people in Vietnam, you take the stem, and if you give it a little twist and pull, it should come straight out if it's ripe.

[00:09:10]There we go.

[00:09:12]Okay. So, now that you've got that, I can just split this open like so.

[00:09:17]Yeah, this one looks really good. Now, the one I found in Vietnam, that one looked like not super perfect. It did fall off the tree. I think it was okay, but not ideal. This one looks better.

[00:09:29]It's got a nice color in there. So, I'm going to actually try a little bit of this just on its own.

[00:09:39]This still tastes kind of like a mealy apple, but it tastes better. I think when I had it before, it got a little overripe.

[00:09:49]This doesn't taste like an overripe apple.

[00:09:52]It just has an apple kind of flavor to it. But there is a bit of like that annona taste. It's a little bit like pineapple, a little bit like mango, a little bit like banana. This has a similar taste to a soursop, but it's not super sour. A little bit. There's flavor in there, but not a lot.

[00:10:13]But let's see what happens when we prepare it in the way that they do in Vietnam. Maybe adding sugar like people do will add a little bit more pep to it.

[00:10:22]Okay, so we got a bowl.

[00:10:24]We've got the fruits. Uh you don't want the peel of this. The peel is just like not super fun to eat. So I'm going to take a knife and just cut it off.

[00:10:35]Some of the videos I saw actually had people doing it just with their hands.

[00:10:39]Like just taking it and like actually peeling it off. But the problem with that is that it's very um flaky. So I feel like if you do that it's more likely to get some grit in there. Also, I didn't wash this.

[00:10:53]>> [laughter] >> I've got some sugar.

[00:10:58]Sprinkle some on top.

[00:11:01]Next we take a spoon and just break it up until all the pieces have come apart into these little chunks like that.

[00:11:12]And finally some ice.

[00:11:16]So some of the videos I was looking at used ice cubes, other ones used crushed ice, and other ones used shaved ice. I think shaved ice would be the best way.

[00:11:27]I do not have the ability to do that though.

[00:11:29]So we're going to do it this way and just use full ice cubes.

[00:11:36]I followed a suggestion online and let it sit for a minute. That way the ice cubes can melt a little bit in there, cool everything down.

[00:11:45]And let's go.

[00:11:51]I get it. It's not a very sweet fruit. So adding the sugar to it makes a lot of sense.

[00:11:58]Adding the ice to it also makes a lot of sense. It's nice and refreshing and cooling. I can see sitting outside on a hot day having a bowl of this and having a great time. It's like the vanilla pudding of annona fruits, okay?

[00:12:14]It's not going to blow you away. It's not like super super strong or anything, but it is mild and it is nice. So I get it. I totally understand having this.

[00:12:26]And like it's not like you're just getting sugar and ice. You're you definitely do get the flavor of the fruit and the fruit is like heightened by that sugar.

[00:12:34]I can see actually taking like some lime and putting it on there too. Or put some salt. You know, so put something else in there. Use this as a base in ice based dessert like a halo-halo. I'm going to try something else because another thing that I saw people doing is making a very similar to thing to this, but adding condensed milk. And I mean adding condensed milk to anything makes it better. You can add condensed milk to like any kind of fruit, cake, cookies, French fries, uh stew. You just throw condensed milk into something and it's going to make it better.

[00:13:21]Mhm.

[00:13:22]When you add condensed milk to it it brings out a flavor that is kind of like um cantaloupe.

[00:13:29]Oddly. Honestly, I think I like it better with just sugar. I'm not noticing so much of that tropical soursop kind of flavor.

[00:13:43]And I'm not noticing so much of that apple flavor. I'm just getting like creamy sweet melon.

[00:13:50]That's what I'm getting there. Which is not a bad thing, but it's making it milder in flavor than it already was.

[00:13:58]>> [music] >> One thing I should point out is that this is full of seed.

[00:14:07]And as I've been eating this I've been taking these seeds out.

[00:14:13]Pond apple seeds contain a whole bunch of different toxins. Uh reticuline is in there.

[00:14:21]Acetogenin and apomorphine. But I'm saying all those things wrong, I know. I'm not a chemist, but uh some of those may sound familiar to you if you are interested in medicine because some of those things are used by the medical world for a variety of things. The toxins in here are different types of neurotoxins. They affect the nervous system. And it's something that you probably shouldn't mess with unless you really know what you're doing. And I do not know what I'm doing. Uh one thing that I can tell you about this is that Native Americans you remember this is not from Vietnam.

[00:14:57]This is from the USA, from Florida. Uh Native Americans from Florida would actually use the seeds of this in order to poison fish. They would grind them up and put them in uh rivers to kill fish.

[00:15:11]It would stun them because it'd be affecting their nervous system.

[00:15:14]Uh so that's that's a fun fact and that is another reason why I'm spitting them out.

[00:15:20]And uh looking at a lot of videos online of people from Vietnam eating these dishes, uh some people just swallow them. You know, some people spit them out. I've noticed that too, but some people just swallow them.

[00:15:32]And uh that is just kind of banking on the fact that it's going to pass through your digestive tract without breaking.

[00:15:39]Yeah, it's probably okay, but probably not a great idea. And also it's probably not a good idea to have a whole bunch of seeds in your stomach. If you get this sort of dessert and you swallow one, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but don't chew on them. Definitely do not chew on these seeds if you are eating a dessert like this or any other kind of dessert that has annonas in it with the seeds intact.

[00:16:21]So I have made two pond apple beverages.

[00:16:24]And how I did this is I took four pond apples, ripe pond apples. I split them in half. I took the skins off of them.

[00:16:33]And then I went through the lengthy process of removing the seeds. This is something that people do do in Vietnam.

[00:16:42]I saw one video where a guy did this by taking a whole bunch of chopsticks, wrapping them together and then like kind of mashing it with that. And that split the flesh off of the seeds.

[00:16:53]I probably should have done that. I just felt lazy and didn't want to dirty a bunch of chopsticks. What I did instead is something that I've seen people do not in Vietnam, but in the Caribbean.

[00:17:05]And what they do is usually with a soursop they mix it with water and then crush it by hand and then strain it out. It was kind of tricky with this particular annona. The flesh sticks to the seeds a little bit more than other ones that I've dealt with.

[00:17:23]So I managed to do this by working with a strainer and just kind of pushing the fruit pulp through the strainer and mixing it again and doing it again. I did this like three or four times and then managed to get most of the pulp out. The problem with doing this technique is that you don't retain any of the texture of those uh of the pulp.

[00:17:45]And I think that's one of the things people [music] like about it in Vietnam.

[00:17:48]I believe that this is treated kind of like boba tea. Only if the boba in that tea had poison in it. Anyway, I I did that a few times. I added one cup of sugar to the resulting slurry that I had. I let that sit for like half an hour or so until the sugar dissolved into that pulp. And then I made two drinks. One of them I took that pulp, half of a lime, ice, and water.

[00:18:17]The other one I did the same thing, but instead of water I used oolong tea.

[00:18:24]First let's try the version with water and uh half a lime in it.

[00:18:29]Mix it up a little bit.

[00:18:38]That is delicious.

[00:18:39]By taking the sugar and the lime and putting that into a fruit that doesn't have a lot of sweetness or sourness to it, it brings out what's nice about that fruit. The flavor that I'm getting from this actually reminds me of another horribly neglected North American fruit, the pawpaw. Now pawpaws and pond apples are actually related.

[00:19:02]Pawpaws are not in the annona genus, but they are in the annona family. So they are more distantly related, but they do have some similarities. And the flavor is is quite similar. I'd say pawpaws taste like it's hard to describe. They're good though. They're really really good. I guess it's kind of like a sugar apple or cherimoya, but it's got a little extra bite to it. Maybe like if you put mango in it. This has that too. I mean when I have this just on its own it reminds me of an apple.

[00:19:34]When you have it with the lime and the sugar in it, I'm not getting apple anymore. I mean it's in there like a little bit, but I'm getting this more tropical flavor. But at the same time I think maybe because it is milder, it goes down easy. Soursop juice is very popular, but it's a strong taste. This, it feels like soursop juice mixed with lemonade. This is very satisfying. This is a very, very nice beverage.

[00:20:02]But, what happens when you mix tea into it? So, this is a popular way that it is sold as something that you get on the side of the road in Vietnam. Like street vendors will often mix it with tea.

[00:20:19]That is good, and that works, but uh oolong tea is a very strong flavor. It's a very distinct taste. It's like kind of roasty, and I'm getting that with this. So, because of that, it the flavors work. It absolutely works, but I'm getting more of a tea front flavor than a um pond apple fronted flavor. Tea is a good idea, but I would go with like a milder tea, or maybe just make your tea a little weaker. I made it I made like a little pot of tea with two tea bags in it. Maybe I should have used one. But, oolong and this fruit go well together.

[00:20:54]It reminds me kind of of having like a bubble tea. I wouldn't complain if there was some little tapioca balls in there. I think that would be good, too.

[00:21:02]And I would say both of these are equally delicious. It would just would depend on what you want. If you want something that has a tea flavor to it, then, you know, this one is the clear winner. If you want it just to be pond apple and the focus to be pond apple, then water and a little lime is plenty.

[00:21:19]It's that's really, really good. I won't lie, making this concentrate was a pain in the neck. However, the good thing about it is it actually made a pretty decent amount of syrup, or whatever you want to call it. Uh and because of all that sugar in here, it should keep. So, I'm going to actually take this and put it in a jar, keep it in the fridge, and whenever I want to make this drink, I'm just going to take a little scoop out of there. Now, it takes some trouble making it, but once you go through that process, you got something that's going to last you for a little while.

[00:21:53]This has been an eye-opening experience for me, because this is a fruit that is almost entirely ignored where it's from, my country. However, it is used commercially and very popular in Vietnam.

[00:22:11]And this isn't the first time that I've come across something like this. Um uh aronia fruit comes to mind. That is a fruit that is from the US, but people here don't really know what it is, yet in Europe in some parts of Europe, it is hugely popular. These have some popularity in small regions through the US. These have some popularity amongst foragers in the US, but you got to agree, it is underappreciated. Most people in the USA do not know what the pond apple is. It is appreciated more in Vietnam than the country that it is native to. I think that this is a valuable lesson that we should all take a closer look to what we have growing around us.

[00:22:58]That's about it, everybody. Thank you very much, and I will see you all next time. If you enjoy what I'm doing here on YouTube, and you would like to see me do more of it, please consider supporting me over on Patreon. Patreon and also YouTube memberships is how I get the funding to do all the things that I do. So, not only do you get to support the channel, but you also get stuff [music] in return that nobody else can get, like early access to videos, exclusive videos. There's an option where I'll send you stuff in the mail, and I can even give you a big shout-out, like the one that I'm about to do right now for Bill T, Joseph McOrgle, Allison and Clara, and Smarter Every Day. Thank you very much, guys, and thank you, everybody, for watching.