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Fruit revelations

I've often been described as a picky eater, and I've always been annoyed by that. I don't consider myself particularly picky, although when I do eschew a food, I'll typically throw the baby out with the bathwater. For instance, I don't eat Anything From the Sea. Tuna, salmon, seaweed, shrimp...they're all in the same category. Yuck!

Of course, that particular aversion is so strong that I've come very close to upchucking on various attempts to choke some seafood down. So, I don't call that picky...I call it a realistic acceptance of my limitations as an epicure.

I also don't eat much in the way of dairy, but that's more for health than for taste. Who's not going to like "whooped cream", as my son calls it?

True, I turn my nose up at Apple Pie, which I consider to be the most overrated dessert. Ever. I despise cheesecake, and that one goes back to before I cut back on dairy.

In an effort to throw off the "picky" label, I've decided to find out what I do like. What have I found? I like fruit. All of it. At least, that was my going theory.

Recently, I've been working my way through the fruit sections at Fred Meyer and New Seasons. Tried Uglifruit: very nice, if a bit intense. Pummelo...love it (great base for smoothies, BTW). Mangoes, both green and yellow: awesome. Papaya...big fan (I even tried the seeds!

But, there was a fruit I'd been wanting to try, and I finally did it this weekend. It's called a kiwano melon:

It's also called a "horned" melon, and you can see, perhaps, why. It made quick work of the plastic bag I dropped it into. You'll also notice in the above image and the one below, that the inside is very, very strange:

Since I like kiwi fruit, I'm not intimidated by strange green innards in a fruit. However, this fruit has defeated me. It's also been called the African Horned Cucumber, and the seeds are really very much like cucumber seeds. Another alternate name is Jelly Melon, and it's suited by that name as well. If you squeeze a half of one of these, little green gelatin pods come squirting out in a very disturbing way. It's like somebody put the Bat Bogey Hex on a fruit.

Of course, all the inner weirdness is offset by a delicate, lovely flavor, right? Umm...no. It tastes like very unripe bananas. The texture is very odd, but not as bad as I've probably got you thinking. Maybe the fruit wasn't ripe...but then, I'm not going to get another one to complete my research.

On a plus note, I did squeeze as much flesh through a strainer as I could and used it in my Sunday Nite Smoothies.

I should also mention that I also picked up a Pepino Melon. It had a shocking lack of flavor. The Fair Elaine assessed it as tasting like green beans. Not exactly what you want in a melon.

I shall continue to plumb the depths of the fruit kingdom at my local grocer. Maybe I'll even find something stranger than the Horned Melon...?

BTW...photos by Elaine Heasley.