Wednesday 6 June 2007

Ali-gata Pera



Came across this by chance yesterday.

Ever wondered where "Ali-gata pera" (in Sinhalese) got its name from? It surely doesn't have any connection with Elephants..?!
Well....... due to their rough green skin and since its shape is close to that of a 'Pear' it's also known as "Alligator Pear"!
:)

5 comments:

Ineshka said...

So you mean to say that the English called it "Alligator Pear" and "ali geta pera" was the name that Sri Lankans derived?? This is very interesting... :) I always thought it was because it was bigger than the normal pera, and they just called it that (although I didn't have an explaination why the "geta" part was in it)...

GG said...

Well, I can't say 100% sure, but it looks like it :)

Because normal pera which is guava and avocado are not related as far as I know. And even in appearance they don't look or taste similar for people to call it a type of 'pera'.

I was just kind of fascinated when I first heard it that's why I posted it so that if someone can either confirm or contradict that..would be interesting.

well..what actually happened was there was a quiz show on tv that I was watching and the host asked "also called 'alligator pear' is what fruit native to Mexico?" and Vishuddhi (doing something else) jumped up to see who mentioned aligata pera on Australian tv.. :D
Then only it kind of got us to think :)

Makes sense doesn't it? I mean in Sinhalese it's a bit difficult to justify the meaning.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sas,
I thought it was because there's a big(ali) seed(geta) inside. Interesting to find the connection between aligator :D

Hasini

GG said...

:D

Nishanthe said...

Prof. J.B. Dissanayaka is due to leave the country with a Diplomatic post. How about filling the vacuum? j/k
Anyways nice explaination and I think what you have given is acceptable according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avacado

nish - http://www.vebguru.com