Weird Fruit

What's neon pink and lime green, leathery with tentacles all over?

A fruit - and a rather tasty one at that.

Last time I was at the Civic Center Farmer's Market in San Francisco, my boyfriend convinced me to purchase a rather bizarre looking fruit. It looked just as described - and got stranger still when we cut it open. In its core, the dragon fruit has a translucent white flesh dotted with tiny black seeds. Its like litchy, but not really. Almost like a kiwi, but not really. Actually, I can't really relate it to any other fruit I've had before.

What I can say, though, is that it's really delicious. The flesh is tender and has a light, almost perfumed taste to it. It's not overpoweringly sweet or tart. It's delicate, like a litchie mixed with a kiwi and a rambutan. A tropical smoothie in one strange package!

And it's big enough to fill you up. Dragon fruit are about the size of a large fist - although the one's I saw in Kona a week later were more like melons! The best way to enjoy them is to cut your dragon fruit in half and eat the flesh with a spoon. Then throw the peels away - a self-contained and beautiful dessert.

These tasty tropical treats will cost you though - when you can find them, they're usually $4 or more a pound. Even in Hawaii, where they grew like nuts.