Saw a street vendor selling Achicha in traffic somewhere in Ikeja. I pulled over immediately and bought a lot of it.
Achicha, a fruit that is commonly found in the eastern part of Nigeria. It is crunchy and tastes like carrot.
You have to peel the dusty brown velvety jagged outer cover to get to the smooth crunchy yellow inside.
You would further find a hard seed inside. I plan to plant the seed.
I’m just happy this fruit is now sold more and more in Lagos when it is in season.
Because it is indigenous to these regions it doesn’t exactly have an English name, some people call it “Monkey Kola” which is the most applicable name.
Achicha isn’t apricot.
Achicha doesn’t share the same genius nor species with the Apricot which is a stone fruit like
Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Lychee…
You don’t need do peel an apricot to get to the fruit.
Achicha is Cola parchycarpa
The white version is Cola Lepidota
And we have Cola Millenii which yoruba’s call Obi Edun.
The most applicable name for the fruit is “Monkey Kola”.
