Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I ate red-fleshed dragonfruit while on a Hawaiian cruise. My mother noticed Asian cruisers descending in hordes upon the 24 hour salad bar, followed them, and seeing that they were going nuts over some strange fruit, she grabbed some for me, knowing that I'm always trying new foods.

My verdict? Meh. It tasted cool and wet, but was no sweeter than a zucchini. I think a lot of these Asian fruits lose their flavor during shipping. I've had good luck with rambutans, lychees and longan berries, though. If you're going to blow $7 on one imported fruit, I'd skip the dragonfruit for something with a better track record.

It's a refreshing fruit, and I like them but they have very little flavour. The white ones were 3 for $15 HKD in Hong Kong, and available at every street corner fruit seller.
Haven't seen them in the US, but they were around $5 CDN in Toronto last year. Definitely not worth the price.

I tried a red-fleshed Dragon Fruit in Hawaii and loved it! Not only was it beautiful to look at, but it was the perfect blend of sweetness and tartness. I've been craving them ever since and look forward to either seeing them in some of the better Atlanta markets or using it as yet another reason to re-visit Hawaii and/or Asia.

Your mention of mangosteens takes me back to Hong Kong, when I was there a few weeks ago and basking in the glory of how inexpensive they were.

Three pounds.

$20 HKD. That's less that $3 US, folks. This is insane to me, coming from New York and seeing them being sold for $5 a pop in places like Dean and Deluca.

Do yourselves a favor, people, and get yourselves to Southeast Asia and eat all the exotic, tasty fruits they have to offer!

KarynMC: Wow, you seriously lucked out with the zucchini one =o I've had white-fleshed dragon fruits that tested meh, but the red-fleshed ones have yet to fail me. You're right though, I wouldn't fork out $7 for one in the States -- I'm thinking that imported fruit tend to be plucked before they're ripe, and with dragon fruit, it's best to taste them as close to the source as possible...

mintyfreshflavor: Ask your mom to check with the grocer if the dragon fruit is from Vietnam or Malaysia -- I've found the ones from the former are yummier =)

@onedaylingers -- I have had soursop candies but not the real thing. Or wait, now that I've looked them both up on wiki I'm a bit confused. There's several in that family and almost any of them could be the one I first tried. I was staying with a friend from Guyana when I was in Toronto and what I remember is she said the fruit was from her home and what she grew up eating. I guess I just assumed a couple years later it was the Cherimoya when I found it again. But it seemed she called hers a custard apple. What I really remember is that it didn't look appealing. The cherimoya was much more sweet and custardy though than what I remember of her fruit. I feel bad because I tried so much then that I simply can't remember them all. It seems there was a South American longan fruit too she treated me to but I can't remember it much at all and the longans that year were incredible so everything similar seemed to be inferior to them.

Same with the kiwi berries. I would have never, not ever tried one if there hadn't been samples at my store and it was actually my daughter who tried one first which is surprising because she tends to be timid about new things. She raved about them so I tried one and we were sold. They are rather expensive too. About $3 or $4 for a small package but the season is really short so we rarely spend more than $20 a year on them. Each package gets us each a substantial handful and I'd rather give her those than a candy bar or scoop of ice cream.

Looks like kiwi berries are a late summer/early autumn treat though my memory was that they came at an odd time when nothing else seemed to be in the store really but I must have missed them last year. I'll have to ask my produce people now. Personally I'd try the smaller, independent stores (like Earth Fare in NC) to see if they will get them or a Co-op as those are so much more responsive to requests and likely to get better ones. However, it looks like you can order them direct from one of the growers in the US and even get your own plants which are pretty hardy. You can even visit; they are not far from New York City and Philadelphia.

There are several different varieties and some are definitely better than others. Some come loose and others come in the clusters they grow in. But, as much as they are like mini kiwis they are different too in surprising and delightful ways.

Where's home that you get Starfruit juice? I love their unique taste but never thought about juicing them. Honestly, I've always been more excited by the adorable star shape they make when sliced than my daughter ever was...

WOW

I've never seen this. The inside looks like candy!

You say it's worth the price? Which breed do you recommend?

hungrychristel: I'm used to paying only 70 cents a pop for them in Asia, and I've seen them sold for upwards of $7 each in the States, so I'm not sure I'd pay that much for them (then again, I can't bring myself to shell out for blueberries in supermarkets). I definitely would seek out the red-fleshed variety (Costa Rica Pitaya) rather than the more common white-fleshed one if you do decide to splurge though!

I'm so excited to see this post! I always spy the pitaya at the local farmer's market (I live in Costa Rica), but have never purchased it. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it costs about $4/kilo here, which is far more expensive than other amazing fruits that we have ($1/pineapple, $1.50/kilo passion fruit, etc.). Now that I know, I'll double-check that it's the red-fleshed variety, and "invest" in a kilo or so - looks delicious!

@gringuitica -- Thank you so much but I don't think it is a nance from the picture I saw when googling. The fruit was more green and came from a tree (having branches still attached) and it had a peel-covering like a lychee and the same type of pit.

But, you inspired me and I googled "lychee-like fruit Guyana" and came up with a site that called something similar a "Fat Poke" which googling that then led me to a Jamaican fruit page. Slogging through the links there (because "fat poke" wasn't actually on the page... ??) gave me a pic matched to the name "guinep" which did get me a wikipedia page for Mamoncillo that looks like it must be it. The fruit goes by dozens of names so it's no wonder I had a hard time refinding it.

The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus), also known as the mamón (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), chenet, guaya, gnep, ginep, skinnip (in Jamaica, St. Kitts) genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Haiti), quenepa (in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic), ackee (in Barbados), Spanish lime, or limoncillo, is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Suriname and the Caribbean. It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The leaves are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long.

It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, similar to that of the related lychee, is classified as a drupe. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). Despite the light color of the fruit's flesh, the juice stains a dark brown color, and was often used by indigenous Arawak natives to dye cloth.

Fruit
Each mamoncillo fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like sunflower seeds or chestnuts.

Thank you though for the ideas and I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with the nance. I've had similar times with bananas (samples of pancakes that turned out to have the fruit as an ingredient -- bleh). Is it possible you just had a bad batch? I did with my second mango and it was a couple years before I tried another.

Sorry too that I didn't see this until just now (but glad I did see it -- it was a nice surprise). =]