Bilimbi: A Guide to The Tropical Sour Fruit
Bilimbi (Irumban Puli / Chemmeen Puli): A Lesser Known Sour Fruit of the Tropics By Debkumar Bhadra Following the encouraging readership and feedback on my earlier article on Passion Fruit , I am tempted to write about another locally available, lesser-known, under-exploited fruit — Bilimbi. Commonly found in coastal India including the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi) is a tropical fruit known for its intensely sour taste. It is widely used in cooking, pickling, and traditional home remedies, valued for its sharp flavour and everyday utility. In the islands, Bilimbi grows almost unnoticed—clustered along slender trunks in backyards and by the roadside. This article explains what Bilimbi is, how it tastes, its medicinal properties, culinary uses, simple recipes for Bilimbi squash and its understated presence in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The fruit belongs to the family Oxalidaceae and is a close relative of the carambola (star fruit), widely cultiv...