What is it?

One night at Safeway, I found this peculiar looking fruit sitting with some mangoes. It looked like the unholy product of a one-night stand between a lonely prickly pear and a drunk kohlrabi. Since there was only one, and no one at the store could figure out what it was, the checkout guy let me take it home for free.

Back at home, I cut into the red skin and was surprised to find a white flesh speckled with hundreds of black seeds. Because of all the seeds, it ate with a texture just like that of a kiwi. It tasted like a very green melon- almost more like a vegetable than a fruit (a little onion-y?). I figured it must not have been completely ripe.

Still not knowing what I had bought, I typed “red skinned white flesh black seeds fruit” into yahoo and got back a bunch of sites for the “pitaya” or “dragon fruit.” Apparently, I wasn’t too far off with the prickly pear since practicallyedible.com told me that dragon fruit comes from a cactus vine. I’d heard of dragon fruit before –I think in some Vitamin Water or Sobe energy drink- but I had absolutely no idea it looked or tasted like the strange thing sitting half eaten in my kitchen.

Wikipedia told me that the pitaya/dragon fruit/strawberry pear/pitahaya/huǒ lóng guǒ/nanettikafruit/thanh long was a native to Central and South America that has become fairly popular in southern China and many Southeast Asian countries (apparently, this fruit-of-many-names is now one of Vietnam’s biggest agricultural exports). The mildly sweet flesh is most often appreciated eaten out of hand though it may be turned into wine or juice (e.g. Sobe and Vitamin Water). Evidently, I should have chilled the fruit before eating in order to bring out its flavor.

Hopefully another pitaya will pop up at Safeway again. Or better yet, more mystery fruit that I get to bring home for free.