This column is paired with this recipe Makataan is a lovely word. It rolls off the tongue in three syllables, the third long aaa being accentuated as if in birdsong…. Ma-ka-taaaan, ma-ka-taaaan. You can almost picture a cocky little bird topped by a brightly coloured comb trilling it as an incitement to mate. But makataan is the name of a fruit, and a wild one at that. It looks exactly like a watermelon. Which is what it is. But not the one you got to know as a child, running around the lawn with slices of its lovely sweet, red flesh and spitting out the pips.