Martha Dahlen

Green Papaya

Mook Gwa

Appears in
A Cook’s Guide to Chinese Vegetables
A Cook’s Guide to Chinese Vegetables

By Martha Dahlen

Published 1992

  • About
Botanical Table

APPEARANCE: Papayas eaten as a vegetable look like papayas eaten as fruit — except that their skin is green, or half-green half-yellow, and the flesh is white. All papayas have a smooth, almost waxy skin, and a generally elongated shape, which starts broad near the stem, narrows a bit in the middle, then bellows out before tapering to a blunt point. They all also have a central cavity, which in unripe fruits has white seeds (or none), and in ripe fruits has black seeds.

Three sorts of papaya reach the Hong Kong markets. The two imported varieties are sold as fruit and eaten only ripe, e.g. small (6-inch) “Solo” papayas, and long (8 to 12-inch) narrow Thai papayas. The third, local variety (illustrated) is sold at fruit stands when ripe and in the vegetable markets when not. It is usually 6 to 12 inches long but broader (4 to 6 inches in diameter) than Thai fruits.