I received about fifteen prompt replies, copied and pasted said responses onto one document, and set out all over town to scour out the recommended locations. The most exciting discovery of them all was GrandMart, a Korean-run establishment that has an equal proportion of Asians and Hispanics, working in communal harmony to provide elusive produce and products to the non-white population of Alexandria.
To my delight, GrandMart not only carries incredibly fresh, cheap produce (masses of immigrants aside), but treasures from all over the world that I never though I'd find in the United States. Ergo, I'm feeling compelled to reminisce upon the many amazing fruits I have experienced in my lifetime (almost all from my experiences in Taiwan), most of which will never reach the United States, and all of which should compel you, gentle reader, to expand your travel horizons to experience such delicacies before your mortal time expires...
Let's start with guavas (bala). My favorite fruit of my Taiwanese childhood, it has the consistency of something between an apple and a really really hard pear, with a subtle zip underneath (boy, I should be a culinary critic...) but my favorite part is the fleshy middle, which some ignorant people shave out when they serve it. Careful of the seeds, they're supposedly indigestible and you'll crack your teeth on them.
Next come lychees, also paid homage in Kayc's Indian travels. Taiwanese are quite superstitious and were always very careful to warn us that eating them would increase our body temperature, as lychees are high in calories. Because of this they are also supposedly a fantastic aphrodisiac, which I never understood why the members of the LDS church in Taiwan would press bunches of them upon us chaste missionaries, telling us about these wonderful properties...
Then we have wax apples (lian wu), which to be honest, if I were still living in Taiwan, would top the list. They're sweet and crunchy and cottony at the same time... the dichotomy of textures alone puts this beautiful fruit in a class all its own. I was lucky enough to live for a few months in the "Black Pearl" (no relation to Pirates of the Carribean) region of Taiwan...
My favorite discovery when I was on my mission was that of dragon fruit (huo long guo), which, in my opinion, looks like a mutant Christmas catcus/Little Shop of Horrors gone awry. The color is brilliant, though the flavor and texture are disappointingly bland; all dragon fruits I tasted reminded me of completely tasteless kiwi fruit with all the little black seeds. But boy it makes a great garnish!
Lastly (for today) we address "sugar apples" (I've never heard that term before, in my head it will always be "shi-jia"), which look slightly creepy; they are filled with large black pits which you spit out after eating the fleshy, banana-esque-but-with-a-tang interior. Taiwanese really like spitting out pits.There are so many, many fruits/vegetables out there that I've never tried; next on my list is mangosteen, very very very hopefully the coveted Indian mangoes that might finally make their way to the States, but I think I can firmly say that I can make it through life without any stinkyfruits in my digestive system...
I think this is the longest post ever, and now I'm hungry. Whilst I pull out my remaining guava, please, humor me... what exotic fruits/vegetables/animals have you ever tried, and what did you think of them?
15 comments:
Don't knock stinkyfruit till you've tried it.
Then, after you do, tell me how it is.
can i just say how much i love you for posting this? you've made me so homesick for taiwan! i would have never thought about all the good fruits i'm missing out on right now. did you actually find good guava out there? i bought some canned guava but i'm too afraid to eat it thinking that it will totally ruin all my good guava memories. and the sour plum powder? don't forget that!
Well, given my recent experience w/ the world's most popular fruit, I have to admit that I'm not exactly eager to jump up and try lots of new fruits. Or maybe if I do, I'll check to see if it's related to poison ivy first.
Other than that, I don't think I've really had a lot of exotic fruit...or vegetables, for that matter. I have eaten rattlesnake sausage, wild boar, bison burgers, llama burgers - quite tasty (yeah, I'm a llama again!)...um. I never did try the meat jello that they eat in Latvia. Strange but I didn't ever crave it. Oh, I did have Kvass in Latvia, though. It's a drink made from the dregs of dark bread and it can be alcoholic, but of course, I had the "virgin" version. It smells like beer and tastes a bit like root beer, until the nasty, bitter after-taste hits you. Gag.
Pick up a bottle today!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass
Oh and by the way...I'm mildly intrigued by the stinkyfruit...not by the smell, of course, but by how the flavor and texture are described. Hmmm.
Kersilla! I knew one or two of my limited readership (Handsome Rob, I'm talking to you) would appreciate my homage to wax apples. I used to call it the "nose fruit" cause it was shaped like a nose... well, a flat ol' Asian nose anyway. :) In fact, exactly like my OWN nose... Did I leave anything out? Did you have any other favorites?
Regarding stinkyfruit, an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:
"... its odor is best described as pig-s***, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock"
Right. YOU try it JC, and let me know how it goes.
Oh, and yeah, I've actually found all the fruits (except "sugar apples") here in DC, but can only condone the guava, they're pretty hardy. The others were so withered and woebegone I nearly cried just looking at them. Please don't eat the canned guava, please...
At culinary school we smelled Durian puree and it can't hold a candle to the awesome power of stinky French cheese, which people seem to love, so I'm not sure why there isn't a Durian flavored Fruit Loop.
I also tasted cherimoya the other day thanks to a Peruvian co-worker. It was pretty good. They look super weird though
I tried a comquat once, it didn't go so well.
I can't believe someone else has actually seen and can quote Waking Ned Devine. Definitely a movie classic.
I was also told that if you ate too many lychees your urine would turn red. That never happened, but my stomach did feel like it was on fire after a gracious member gave us bundle of them.
Two of my favorite fruits that you neglected to mention were pomelos and those little green apple things. I don't remember their name but I know they would water them with milk when they were growing. Do you know the name of them?
Also I never tried stinky fruit but I had a stinky fruit candy once and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten.
I LOVE KUMQUATS! It's my favorite as you well know. And, the delicious Asian pear. Other than that, I am pretty boring fruit eater. Bananas. Apples. Clementines. Are my stables.
so, i'm glad you posted this blog because now i can be fully prepared (although i don't think anyone can ever be fully fully prepared) for my trip to china in four weeks. mmmm, yay fruit. i had some weird peach flavored japanese drink yesterday that i bought to go along with my sushi ingredients. did i ever tell you how much i worship you for sendin me that hot and sour soup recipe? it's all i ever want to feast on now...
ps. 'gentle readers'? where'd you get that phrase from?
I once planned to try a Durian not so long ago. We fully bought one and everything, then we learned we were supposed to not eat it until it got softer. So, we put it outside and waited. And then we forgot about it until it was too late. Oh well, maybe another time. But on a side note, I once looked up a picture of the inside. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it not look a lot like a fetus?!
I tried Tahitian Noni when I lived in Hawaii. I was always telling people about it on my tours and about how good it is for hypertension, but it's disgusting when it's ripe, so I figured I should try it, so I could back up my claim to disgustingness. Yep.
When I went to Peru, every fruit I ate was a zillion times better than its equivalent here in the states. Guava, mango, papaya...and some others I just can't remember the names of and have never seen elsewhere. Amazing.
O Little Kengling - I got the phrase "gentle readers" from the director of my master's program at UMD. It may sound benign but the phrase was usually flanked on both ends with copious quantities of swearing, so the effect was marred somewhat...
Handsome Rob, I TOTALLY know the green apple things you're talking about; in fact, I wanted to include them but don't know the name either. I did a google search on "tropical Taiwan fruit"... as you can imagine, it wasn't helpful. And by the way, be calm, because the chicken dinner really wasn't his intestines.
Warren, I've learned my lesson... never force weird fruits on poor unsuspecting souls. But Wendi liked them anyway...
Abby so did you just throw it out? Cause I remember it sitting on your counter, for, like, EVER...
I have had bread fruit in Samoa. It was strange, but I could definitely see why they named it that. It had a texture much like bread, and it was bland like most bread (I love bread, don't get me wrong). But, it was strange to know I was eating FRUIT.
My fiance thinks bread fruit is yucky.
I came across your blog while trying to find the name of a fruit I loved in Vietnam. Your blog tells me it is guava. Thanks for helping me reminisce about the fruit I ate in Vietnam; they are all listed on this blog entry. Anyway, I loved guava; we ate it with some fresh red pepper ground with salt. Yum!
Thanks again.
Valerie
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