When Chris Lowe opened hainan chicken house The idea I had with my family at Sunset Park earlier this year was to serve the poached chicken that gave it its name. Along the way, this casual Malaysian restaurant has created some of the city’s most exciting specialties, from Rose He Chiffon Cake with Lychee He Champagne Jam to Yellowtail Fish Curry and Mussels with Roti in Curry Soup. became known to fans. Our latest creation is Rojak, a fruit salad with a twist on Rojak that will be on the menu this weekend. Pawpaws are scattered here. This will be a test to see if this version of the dish remains on the permanent menu.
Pawpaw, a fruit native to the eastern United States, has various names depending on the tribe and is gaining attention in the United States, where it is described as a creamy “banana-pineapple-mango blend.” conversation About climate change. It is also notoriously difficult for local chefs to source, due in part to its short growing season and fickle lifespan, and is largely ignored on New York menus due to a lack of commercial viability. It seems that. Interest in this elusive fruit and its preservation has only grown in recent years, as its fame, honor as Indigenous land stewards, and means of procuring it have grown. momentum increasesrecently report by new york times It was exhibited.
This weekend, Nature Based hosting 4th annual pawpaw sale to the public. Fans who want to get their hands on this fruit can head to the Nature His Base headquarters at 113 Wolcott Street near Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. Saturday, Oct. 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m. His owner, Fred Wolfe, never intended to be a major pawpaw supplier in New York, but he just happened to be one. , he says.
Throughout the year, his company We design and build school gardens and work on private landscape projects. We’re not actually in the fruit business. Pawpaw became a labor of love. But along the way, he has been selling pawpaw plugs wholesale to restaurants like Hainan Chicken House. “It aligns with our values of respecting and working with native plants,” Wolf said. He sources his fruit from Threefold Farm, a certified organic farm in Pennsylvania. It’s the closest place he can get plants of this level of quality in large quantities. he says.
Chef Diego Moya, who directs the food program at Oberon Group wine bars June and Anais, says pawpaw has always been on the menu at the places he’s worked. “It’s almost impossible to source pawpaws. Over the years, I’ve heard people here and there who have a few trees, know a friend who found a tree, or sometimes local foragers… I heard rumors that they were collecting enough to take home and sell. I have never seen fruit available at any level or from any vendor,” he says.
Except for a few backyards here and there, like the backyard of Brooklyn pawpaw fanatic Reza Farzan. times Wolf, who grows fruit here in the city and sells seeds on sites like Etsy, is one of a handful of restaurant wholesalers. Companies like Regalis sell fruit to restaurants. Around this time, they began to appear at Grow New York City’s Grand Army Plaza Farmer’s Market and some nurseries upstate. Fulgrance Laundromat in Greenpoint sources its pawpaws from foragers in Pennsylvania.
Still, the market is niche, and brand representatives say other companies, such as Natura, known for its hard-to-find produce, don’t currently offer it to chefs.
Because pawpaws have an incredibly short lifespan, they have a “catch-it-for-you” nature for restaurants, which can make eating them flexible. It’s a special product and it’s priced as such. Naturebase will be selling 10 pounds for $100 this weekend, or $80 to “manufacturers, seed spreaders, restaurants, and haberdashers.” [sic], brewers, witches, distillers and more. ”
Because of its delicate nature, bruising, and speed of processing, in the past the pulp has been pureed and frozen to make ice creams and mousses, Moya said. It reminds him of the cherimoya he grew up eating as a child,” he says. With Nature Based’s pawpaw, he plans to include it as a short-lived dessert on the opening menu of Oberon Group’s Manhattan restaurant, but that’s still being kept a secret.
Brooklyn restaurant and bakery Runner & Stone opened in 2012. This is the first year they have worked “together” to source pawpaws. To start, they’ve ordered about 12 pounds of fruit, which they plan to use as condiments, sandwich toppings, and perhaps desserts like custard tarts and cakes. “Ice cream is an easy food where the tropical flavors and creamy consistency really shine. After all, you should make the most of it while you can,” says owner Chris Pizzulli .
Other bakeries, like Sunset Park’s Moonrise Bakehouse, are sourcing from Nature Base this year, with plans to use it in pastry cream for croissants and mini tarts, and potentially into banana bread-style breads. be.
Another Nature Based customer, Gowanus restaurant Café Mars, said it has received cold emails this year from various pawpaw foragers eager to sell pawpaws. We use local ingredients, but all forces conspire and there is an inexplicable speed behind it,” says co-owner Paul Davino.
Davino says they chose Naturebase because they can support transparent sourcing, just like they do with their other products. They plan to use it for their dessert menu, with a constant rotation of fruit plates with zabaglione. But they’ve also gotten some people to experiment with the bar, and plan to ferment or freeze it to extend its life.
“We’re really excited about ingredients. We’re curious people, so we love using things we don’t normally use and experimenting with them to see how they can benefit us. It’s really fun and exciting for me,” says Davino. . “But it’s never like, ‘We have this and you don’t,'” Davino says. “It’s just cool to introduce fruits that people are unfamiliar with.”
Will there be enough interest from buyers for the hundreds of pounds of pawpaws Wolf brought in from out of state? he isn’t worried. “They always go!” he says. “We usually sell out by the second day, even if it’s that long.” Whatever doesn’t sell, he and his team eat and save seeds to plant.
Wolf continues to sell pawpaws every year to help repopulate New York and make them more accessible to chefs and home cooks. In his free time, he plants seeds around the city, including in Prospect Park. “I have a vision of New York becoming the place for Paw Paw. [again] — after all, it’s an indigenous fruit unique to our region — and it’s becoming something people look forward to more and more every year. ” Pawpaw trees will also be on sale at Naturebase this weekend for those who want to grow them at home. “I want more people to pick it up and taste it.”
For fans of wolves and other pawpaws, there is beauty in ephemeral nature. “When autumn comes, the flavor deepens all at once, and then winter comes.”
