Frightfully freaky fruit

[spaghetttti]

I've just discovered some of these fruits. The appearance of some of them really scared the heck out of me.

This had the strangest "face" - very appropriately named dragon fruit

But its flesh was surprisingly sweet and luscious

The cacao fruit looked innocent enough

until it was cut open and eeek, sure was spooky! Although it had a pleasant custardly texture, it wasn't very flavorful.

Very subtle sweet undertones

Thai tamarind has an eerie otherworldly aura to it, but I love how it's both sweet and tart. Fun to eat.

Do you know/like these fruits? How else can they be enjoyed other than eaten straight?

[tryska]

that dragonb fruit looks like a cousin to passionfruit. is it?

and i love tamarind!

[Laksa]

Yetty, I'm looking at the cacao fruit and I can't figure out which part of the fruit one is supposed to eat? I'm guessing the creamy white bulbs inside?

The tamarind doesn't scare me. Looks like a pen<backspace><backspace> -- I mean peanut.

[Carolyn Tillie]

These are fabulous photos! Pray tell -- where do you live and where did you acquire these fruits? I'm in NoCal and wish to hunt some of them down...

[Jujubee]

Re: tamarind

I bought some of these pods in the grocery store without knowing what I was going to do with them. Can I use the flesh in recipes that call for tamarind paste (the kind that comes in blocks)? Or is it for eating plain?

[gingerly]

lovely pics!had to reluctantly stop admiring the dragonfruit i bought to actually eat it-nice but looked better!reminded me of kiwifruit(texture)and tender coconut(flavour)

Jujubee-the tamarind paste in blocksmost is aged and mellowed a bit so you might get a sharper flavour with fresh,ripe tamarind.

[Carrot Top]

The title you wrote for this made me laugh...sounded like a disco song from the 70's. Then the photos continued my little fantasy by looking like some one sort of left over from the 70's who just took a few too many drugs...

I love dragonfruit and tamarind.

Wonderful photos and a nice reminder to get to stop by that section of the supermarket and pick up some....

[SG-]

The one and only time I had a cacao fruit thought similar to say a cross between a cherimoya and buah nona (help can't find english translation). quite enjoyed it actually.

As for the dragon fruit, not sweet enough, a little bland IMO.

[Sam Salmon]

Many travellers to Baja will know the 'Dragonfruit' as Pitahaya-a bland relatively flavourless fruit of some Cactus or other.

Great to see some photos on the Board-this format is so bland it reminds me of Dragonfruit.

[spaghetttti]

This is a sirsak or soursop that I bought last night, it's still not quite ripe and should be ready to eat in a couple of days. I've only had sirsak shakes, so it will be interesting to see how the flesh looks and tastes.

tryska: I think we call passionfruit here markissa, is that right Laksa? I haven't seen the actual fruit but there are markissa juices and syrups that are readily available to me. Let me do some checking around.

Laksa : You know, at first I thought that the meaty rind could be eaten as well, but it's just those creamy segments. Again, it was really rather eh.

Carolyn Tillie: I am currently living in West Java, Indonesia where the fruit ranges from ugly, scary to really gorgeous. I'm curious to know what exotic fruits are available in your area. Exotic can be relative, because here fresh black sweet cherries are quite unusual and are imported from the States. I saw some nectarines yesterday, and while I was looking them over, an elderly lady came over to ask me what they were and how they tasted. She'd never seen them before. ( BTW I so admire your avatar, what an honor it must have been to have met her and have that photo to treasure. She was a wonderful lady, and will be greatly missed. Also, The Lion in Winter is one of my all-time favorite movies)

Jujubee: That Thai tamarind is really good for snacking. Another kind that I get is asem jawa which is used for cooking, but I have a bunch and want to make a refreshing drink using that with some gula jawa/ palm sugar.

gingerly: Thank you, I kept trying to figure out what other fruit to compare the dragonfruit to. Yes, kiwi is just about right.

Carrot Top: Oh yeah, the 70's disco era was freaky deaky! I was most definitely the Disco Queen -- that was my time! Are the dragonfruit and tamarind easily available at your local supermarket?

SG-: What a coincidence! I've been looking all over the place for buah nona, we call it buah srikaya here in Bandung, but can't find it anywhere! I really like it, another fun fruit though kind of messy, right?

Sam Salmon: You're not the only person who observed that the dragonfruit is bland. It's really strange because I bought two, while one was sweet the other was only slightly so. So, I'm guessing that dragonfruit is typically bland, then? BTW So the format is bland like dragonfruit, huh? To spice it up a little, may I suggest that you check out the Dinner! thread. Eye-popping, mouthwatering photos can be found there. Or perhaps eGullet Foodblogs -- the most recent, Laksa's, was very vibrant and witty. Some really great photos were incorporated there.

Stay tuned, I may have more freaky looking fruit for you all.

All the best,

Yetty

Edited August 28, 2004 by spaghetttti (log)

[Carrot Top]

Hmmm. It is not so much the taste of the dragonfruit that is good but maybe the texture, to me....

It is available once in a rare while here (in southwestern Virginia) because the small city I live in has an international population drawn to the university here.

Tamarind, in my experience in living here and there in the US, is more widely available. It used to be that you could only find it in the Hispanic grocery stores, but now it is more often found in the usual chain groceries....

Indonesia, huh? Now there is a land of many fascinating tastes!

P.S. That photo of a soursop almost looks 'painterly'. However that photo was taken, it did something special to the subject.

[Pan]

That Thai tamarind looks a lot less juicy than the rather round tamarind that grew outside the little kitchen area in my village house in Terengganu, Malaysia. Perhaps that was what you call asem jawa. I forget the Latin name, but that type of tamarind has juice that's great to use in curries and asam (sour) dishes. It's called asam gelugor in Malay.

Edited August 28, 2004 by Pan (log)

[KarenS]

I use dragonfruit on my menu often. It is grown on Hawaii (the big island). It is the fruit of a cactus (origin is Guatumala). We get them with the white interior and there is also one with a magenta interior. They taste similar to a green kiwi.

[fifi]

This is a sapote that my sister and I found at a fruit stand in Kauai a couple of years ago. I had heard of it but that was about all. I kind of thought of it as a sweetish avocado. The seed is really beautiful. We used it in salads and on sandwiches.

[Sam Salmon]

Linda-that fruit is not a Sapote but a Mamey.

See This Link for photos of Mamey.

You may already be aware that someone in Peru when describing something wondrous might say "Es Mamey"!

Sapote both Black and White come in numerous shapes some of them somewhat resembling a Mamey but the flavour is quite different with Sapote (or Zapote) having a greater range of flavour.

[mighty quinn]

carrot top-you must be in blacksburg. welcome Hokies to the ACC!

fifi-strangely enough, when i saw the pic of the sapote/ mamey, i thought "avacado meets canteloupe.'' cool fruit!

[Laksa]

I think we call passionfruit here markissa, is that right Laksa?

I think you are right about Indonesia (also konyal) but according to this website, it's called buah sus in Malaysia.

I like to call it buah asmara, but nobody else knows what I'm talking about. (asmara = passion)

[spaghetttti]

Snakefruit or salak is another strange looking fruit, don't you think? Care should be taken when peeling the skin, the "scales" are a bit sharp. The fruit is crisp & crunchy and can be sweet with some tartness (can you say "pucker"?).

[Pan]

I have to say I never loved buah salak, but it is common in Sumatra, as I recall.

[SG-]

The skin of the salak fruit looks like snakeskin or pangolin. I find the Balinese variety tends to have less of the puckery aftertaste and is sweeter in general. Quite addictive once you get used to them.

[Adam Balic]

On occasion even the supermarkets in Scotland have sold Dragonfruit. Bland, tastes like a vaguely sweet turnip.

What type of tamarind is that, the sweet or the sour variety?

Excellent pictures BTW.

[spaghetttti]

Passionfruit, or as Laksa would call it -- buah asmara.

Not scary though, huh? I just think that the passionfruit's innards look unusual. Very juicy and slippery. I wish the fruit were a bit sweeter, but the seeds pack a tangy crunch. To me, those seeds are the best part of the fruit.

Adam Balic: Have to say that I've never had a turnip. The Thai tamarind were very sweet, almost like candy. And yes, Michael, they were rather dry with just a tad bit of stickiness. But I like those a lot, could eat a bunch of them.

fifi: The vivid orange flesh of the sapote/mamey is very striking. It looks much like the flesh of the papayas we get here.

KarenS: I actually like the fuschia-colored skin of the dragonfruit. The ones you get with the magenta flesh must look amazing.

Edited August 30, 2004 by spaghetttti (log)

[Laksa]

Yetty, I'm seeing for the first time the insides of a yellow passionfruit (or a yellow passionfruit, for that matter). Does it taste the same as the purple one?

The pictures of salak remind me of langsat. Though not at all scary looking, langsat comes immediately to mind when I think of Indonesian fruits. It is so good! I think much of the langsat sold in Sarawak is imported from Indonesia.

[Suzanne F]

Walking through NYC's Chinatown yesterday, I saw dragonfruit for the first time! And maybe snakefruit (or cheremoya, which is not so unusual here)? In any case, so exciting! I wonder where these come from -- we still can't get fresh mangosteen, iirc.

Edited August 30, 2004 by Suzanne F (log)

[spaghetttti]

Some cool and refreshing mangosteens for Suzanne.

The neat thing about them is if you look on the blossom end, the little markings show how many segments of the fruit are inside.

Laksa, this was my first encounter with fresh passionfruit. There were only those yellow ones at the market, so I have no basis for comparisons as far as taste goes. But I bet the purple ones are very attractive. What do their insides look like? We have a few more months yet for langsat season. The dukuh from Palembang, South Sumatera are especially juicy and sweet.

Edited August 31, 2004 by spaghetttti (log)