A co-worker of mine is obsessed with exotic fruit. He frequents Asian markets and brings his new discoveries to work for his lunch. He always shares part of it with me. While I appreciate his generosity, these midday experiments bring me undue anxiety. The smells bring back nauseating memories of the Asian market in downtown Kansas City. Bring me a stinky wheel of Camembert or Roquefort or a bowl of Greek olives and I'll be a happy girl, but when it comes to fruit I think I'm just an All-American strawberry/apple/grape girl.
This is the Durian Fruit I think from Thailand. It is known for it's stinky smell but delicious flavor. It stunk up our whole office yesterday with some lingering fumes even today. The texture? half-raw scrambled eggs come to mind. The taste? I wanted to gag and throw up. I had serious issues with this one. The guy spent over $10 on it!
This is called lychee. At first glance it looks like a freeze dried strawberry. My co-worker dropped one in my hand and I said, "what am I supposed to do with it?" I almost bit right into it, but he said I was supposed to peel it. I dug my thumb nail in it and juice squirted out all over me and I was surprised to see an eyeball inside. Gross translucent white flesh with a dark pit. I didn't want to take a bite, but I did and it was actually nice tasting. The lingering memories of yesterday's Durian stench left a slight nastiness, but overall it was ok.
Have any of you ever tried these? Have you had any positive/negative experiences with foreign fruits?
Have any of you ever tried these? Have you had any positive/negative experiences with foreign fruits?
4 comments:
I've never tried either of those. I can't believe he spent $100 on that one fruit! I did try a fruit called jack fruit in Uganda. It was the weirdest tasting thing I have ever had. It sort of tasted like juicy fruit gum times ten. The thing about it was you had to eat it at it's perfect ripeness. It tasted like death if you didn't get it on the right day.
lychee trees are everywhere in hawaii. I personally don't think they're very tasty though.
Sick sick sick sick sick. I LOVE all things tropical except their fruit!!! I hate pineapple, mango, papaya, cantaloupe--you name it. Give me an apple, an orange, or a banana (yeah, so a banana is sort of tropical) any day. Watermelons are acceptable, too. And berries. But that's IT. (My husband is standing behind me chanting, "Watermelons come from Africa. Bananas are tropical. You like kiwifruit. And coconuts." Yeah, OKAY.)
Remember those Greek olives we bought at that Christmas market in Germany? With the chunks of cheese and whole garlic cloves? We looked at each other and said, "Our breath is going to REEK!" and then ate them anyway. Mmmmm. Such good, tasty memories!!!
I've had canned Lychee before, and I really like it. The first time I had it though, was at Angelica's house in middle school, and i thought I was eating an eyeball. That other one looks heinous. Girrrrrllll...
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