Mangosteen is considered by many to be the Queen of fruit, certainly it is good tasting and sweet. But, I don't think it should be dried, as it then becomes a chewy piece of leathery fruit, and is utterly rejected by my mangosteen-loving daughter! Enough said.
Sometime's you're lucky; most of the time the fruit that gets shipped in from overseas is either under-ripe or over-ripe, better to get it in the country where it's grown. Occasionally, you get a perfect looking fresh fruit that tastes wonderful. Sometimes you're lucky.
Dragon Fruit, or more correctly Pitaya or Pitahaya, is an increasingly common fruit in Asia. Once cut open, the flesh inside of the most common is white with black seeds; the less common, and more tasty, is red on the outside with red flesh inside (there is also a much sweeter variety, yellow on the outside with white flesh — this one is the tastiest). I had been looking for the red-fleshed variety for a long while, and was pleased to find some in a local Chinese Supermarket (when we were in Thailand in February, we asked at the markets, and they, unfortunately, came out 2-3 months later). The red Pitaya looks very much like the yellow dragon fruit (Pitahaya) in shape, a little bigger and elongated, inside it's quite red in colour (I have seen pictures of even darker red ones). Eating it, it's sweet, thought not as sweet and flavourful as the yellow pitahaya. I'm pleased to finally try some of this interesting fruit.
Mum's Original has a whole line of raw superfoods. This one features bananas from Ecuador, grown and ripened in the full sun, then dehydrated at a low temperature. They are then finely milled to create a banana powder that you can add to desserts, shakes and breakfast dishes. This has a very banana-y flavour, very good if you love bananas. One 200 g package costs between 9 and 10 dollars.
We found these in a Middle-Eastern shop. They're at least interesting for their red colour, different than the orange of apricots I'm used to. I wouldn't say that they reminded me of velvet, the skin was smooth, but they are a good eating apricot, save for the higher price.
I've been able to get some of these for a couple of years now at the Square One Farmer's Market. German prune plums are similar to the Italian variety, but are smaller and, in my opinion, have better flavour. Get them if you can.
I’ve talked about the superior flavour of Thai bananas, this is a snack that’s really healthy, just Thai bananas baked with honey (and only 1% of the total). Because these are fresh with little preservatives (honey is itself a natural preservative, and very little can grow in it), the shelf life is very short (compared to all the other snacks out there). The banana ends up being chewy with a honey flavour. Interesting, but I think I prefer the fresh banana.
Andrews Scenic Acres is a large farm with fruit orchards and other vegetables (a very large list); you can either buy from them or pick your own; they also have animals, wagon rides, playground and other fun things for a child to do. My beautiful Bride and daughter went there during the summer, to pick strawberries. When they were there, they also picked up for me some jams made with rhubarb. This one is rhubarb strawberry; they also bought one that has raspberry. The ingredients are just rhubarb, strawberry and sugar, so very little sugar, more fruit, and no added pectin, and I like that it is rhubarb first in the ingredients (normally it would be the other way). I thought, though, that they made these jams themselves, but I see on the label “Prepared For”; hopefully, they at least used fruit from the farm. The jam itself tasted okay, not really fresh, and not a strong rhubarb or strawberry flavour.
This is the last of the O.N.E. drinks that I tried. Acai is a new fruit superfood that is finding its way into a number of drinks, both health-oriented and even commercial ones; these Acai berries are wild-crafted from the Amazon Rainforest. Acerola cherries are an excellent source of Vitamin C. Drinking it, the liquid has a fair amount of brownish-red pulp, a little off-putting, and the drink tasted somewhat sour (from the cherries, no doubt). Overall, I would say this was my least favourite of the O.N.E. drinks, my favourite being the Cashew Fruit.
Where I bought this, Whole Foods, they called this a Lulo, also known as a naranjilla, but those are small and round and orange. A little searching on the ‘Net revealed that this is a Banana Passionfruit, also called Taxo, or curuba (Colombia) or parcha (Venezuela) or tumbo (Bolivia), which is what we guessed when we first sliced it open, it definitely looked like other passionfruits I’ve eaten, just orange in colour.
And it tastes sort of pear-like, what struck me first, but sour in flavour, similar to other passionfruits I’ve enjoyed. Quite good, and something I could eat on a regular basis, if only I could find it, and it didn’t cost $2 each.
I’ve eaten coffee fruit before, in Venezuela, and found it to be a little sweet, nothing like coffee (but then the bean gets roasted, which changes its flavour (for the better). Like the Cashew Fruit I tried before, this is based on the idea of a fruit surrounding a more recognizable and used part of the plant. The fruit also contains caffeine, similar to green tea; it also has antioxidants. This drink only contains a little of the coffee fruit juice, it’s mostly acerola and pitanga (both fruits native to Brazil). Tasting it, I don’t get coffee, it has a sweetness along with a different sourness, interesting, but not one I’d want to drink again.
I've seen this specialty fruit packed in jars for sale in several supermarkets, but always it seemed too expensive to try, until recently when I bought it on sale (for half-price).The Chilean Carica, also known as the Chilean Golden Papaya or Chilean Mountain Papaya (and the fruit looks golden), grows wild in the mountains of Chile, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru; it grows in limited quantities, thus is really a local delicacy that has recently been exported. Like plantains or chestnuts, carica fruit must be cooked to be eaten (usually poached); even in Chile you buy them in a jar. Nutritionally, carica is rich in Vitamin C, fiber and the papaina enzyme (same as papaya). It can be used in any number of ways, from dessert to cocktails to pairing with seafood or meat.
The flavour of the carica is supposed to remind one of papaya, peach, pear and other fruits. Definitely it has a crispier texture than other fruits I have eaten preserved in cans, and it does remind me of a pear with a peach flavour, though really different than those two. These are quite expensive, so I doubt that I would eat them on a regular basis, but for special occasions, and substituting them for another fruit in a dish would be quite interesting for dinner parties, I would think.
I’ve had cashews before, lots of times, they’re fairly common in Indian dishes, and pair well with dark chocolate, but didn’t realize that the nut has a fruit around it, let alone that you could make juice out of it, or that it would taste so good. This cashew fruit comes from Brazil. O.N.E. makes juice from interesting and different sources. The cashew fruit has many health benefits, calming the stomach, soothing the throat, promoting healthy skin, it’s a rich source of Vitamin C (more than orange), is also a source of such important nutrients as beta-carotene, B1 and B2 and B3 vitamins, calcium and iron. It’s also low in acidity. They added cane sugar and citric acid and Vitamin C along with water and cashew fruit puree, but it still tastes great, like a light mango, very refreshing and something I’d like to drink on a regular basis (though, like most fruit juices, it is high in sugar, almost like drinking a pop, but nutritionally better for you).
I’ve had duck before, prepared the Chinese way and the European way, and found it mostly to be very oily. Now, this dish is a whole different matter, the roasted duck that we used paired excellently with the lychees and tomatoes (which sort of explode in your mouth when you bite down on them, delicious). You can also make this with pineapple or young coconut instead of lychees. Serve this over steamed Jasmine rice and garnished with a few leaves of Thai basil.
Red Curry with Duck and LycheesRemove the skin and fat from the duck breasts; thinly slice the raw meat or shred the roasted duck meat. Mix the meat with the sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and allspice and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a wok or heavy-bottomed frying pan and stir-fry the red curry paste over medium heat for 2 minutes, until fragrant.
Add the meat, coconut milk and stock and cook for 5-6 minutes or until the meat is cooked (half the time if using roasted duck meat). Add the fish sauce, sugar, lychees and tomatoes and cook for another 1-2 minutes (don’t let the tomatoes overcook). Add the kaffir lime leaves and let heat for another minute.
This new 100% fruit and juice blend from President’s Choice (similar to their Pineapple Guava Passion Fruit, which I really like, and their Mango Orange) features Peach puree, and tangerine and orange juice as its only ingredients. I don’t really taste the tangerine and orange juices, the predominant flavour is peach; not that I mind, I like peach. This is a very thick juice; I normally add some carbonated mineral water to it. I think I prefer this second to the Pineapple Guava Passion Fruit.
This 100% fruit juice from Oasis features yellow fruits and vegetables, including pineapple, passion fruit, lemon, yellow bell pepper, with golden kiwi puree and turmeric (a natural yellow colour). There is also, like many fruit juice blends, a base of apple or grape juice. This tasted very good, though maybe a little on the sweet side (and 25 g of sugar per serving of 250 mL). This is definitely a blend, because not one flavour of the various yellow fruits and vegetables dominates.
Rambutan is one of those Asian fruits that you might see in an Asian supermarket, and some of them will have come from Thailand. These frozen versions, the whole fruit is frozen, would be my introduction to this interesting looking, well, kind of weird-looking, fruit. Rambutans are similar to longans or lychees, peeling the skin reveals a milky white fruit (could be yellow or pink) that surrounds a seed (in this case elongated and smaller than an almond).
Within the outer bag reveals an inner bag with the frozen fruit (I’m surprised that, unlike mango or durian, these are frozen whole, but perhaps that prolongs their shelf life).
This is a close-up of the individual rambutan, which looks similar to the fresh ones I’ve seen.
The fruit was definitely frozen, but we managed to slice open the peel, to reveal the white flesh within.
How did they taste? The fruit itself was somewhat difficult to separate from the seed, and I could not, no matter what it said on the package, eat it frozen, I left it to defrost before consuming. The texture is similar to the longan and lychee, slighly sour but sweet at the same time, not bad for my first try. I am sure that fresh in Thailand would taste infinitely better, and they seem to be a lot of work to eat, so I might decide to wait till I actually get to Thailand before trying them again.
The second of the two new chocolate-covered fruit juice "gummis" from the Canadian company Brookside features juice from Pomegranate, also know for its health benefits and antioxidants. The ingredient listing is okay, dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, alkalized cocoa powder, soya lecithin, salt and natural flavour), fruit juice from concentrate (flitered water, pomegranate juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate and elderberry juice concentrate), cane sugar, corn syrup, maltodextrin (corn), pectin, citric acid, malic acid, natural flavour, ascorbic acid, canola oil and confectioner's glaze.
How do they taste? The dark chocolate is a little sweet (I would think that it just makes the "dark chocolate" category, and the fruit juice pieces, like the acai/blueberry one, are really very sweet, too sweet that you sometimes get a "sugar burn" in the throat, if you eat them too fast. Overall, I think these are not bad tasting, though I don't really get the pomegranate flavour (perhaps there are too many other juice concentrates). The 200 g bag was about $5 at WalMart. I don't think I would buy this product again.
The Canadian company Brookside recently came out with a couple of interesting products; essentially they are chocolate-covered fruit juice "gummis" (thickened with pectin). This one features juice from Acai and Blueberry, both know for their health benefits and antioxidants. The ingredient listing is okay, dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, milk ingredients, alkalized cocoa powder, soya lecithin, salt and natural flavour), fruit juice from concentrate (flitered water, acai juice concentrate, blueberry juice concentrate, raspberry juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, pomegranate juice concentrate, elderberry juice concentrate and lemon juice concentrate), cane sugar, corn syrup, maltodextrin (corn), pectin, citric acid, malic acid, natural flavours, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), canola oil and confectioner's glaze.
How do they taste? The dark chocolate is a little sweet (I would think that it just makes the "dark chocolate" category, and the fruit juice pieces are really very sweet, too sweet that you sometimes get a "sugar burn" in the throat, if you eat them too fast. Overall, I think these are not bad tasting, though I can't really tell the acai from the blueberry flavour (perhaps there are too many juice concentrates). The 200 g bag was about $5 at WalMart. I don't think I would buy this product again.
The second of the two Easter Holiday seasonal chocolate bars that I found and bought in Germany, the other being Erdbeer-Rhabarber-Buttermilch, has two of my favourite foods, quark and raspberries (Himbeer). Quark is a fresh cheese similar to fromage frais and ricotta (though ricotta is made from scalded whey while quark is not) that is found in Europe more than it is in North America, and enjoyed mostly in dessert form, such as cheesecake or mixed with fruits. This bar is very similar to the Strawberry-Rhubarb-Buttermilk one; it is a milk chocolate with a sweet filling. There is no indication of the cacao content.
How does it taste? I enjoyed this one as much as the Strawberry-Rhubarb one, and it tasted very similar, very sweet with an underlying tart flavour (from the quark). I don't think I would buy this again, and don't really have a source for them. Again, let's get a dark chocolate version of this. Raspberries and dark chocolate are a good combination.
