My Final Fruit Feast

Published in Citylife Magazine on August 13, 2019:

Where I come from, deep in the forested mountains of Colorado, fruits are a scarce commodity. The loose rocky soil, sporadic and infrequent rainfall and low humidity makes growing fruit difficult, if not impossible. Fruit is shipped to two local supermarkets, where it is often overpriced. Mangos are a rarity, imported from faraway places, and passion fruit is even harder to find, so my fruit palate has always been rather limited. So, for my last hurrah before I head back home after spending two months interning at Citylife, I decided to have a farewell fruit feast.

My goal was to eat nothing but fruit for a whole week; breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m just kidding. I’m not that crazy, and there were all my favorite Thai dishes to say goodbye to. But, using my unrefined American palate, I planned to try out a number of fruits, deciding to write a brief description of what I thought the fruit tasted like before trying them out. Challenge (to myself) accepted, I headed to the nearest market.

Mangosteen

What I thought:

I suspect this fruit to have a deep vanilla-like flavour. It looks like it’ll be very sweet, rich, and quite delicious. As far as consistency goes, mangosteen appears rather crunchy, like an apple or a pear.

What I tasted:

I really can’t describe what this fruit tastes like. All I can say is that it’s very good, and bursting with flavor. The clementine-like fruit on the inside, is very flavorful and sweet, and drastically different from any fruits I’ve ever had back home.

Rambutan

What I thought:

Rambutan seems like it will have a very citrusy flavor, similar to a lime or a lemon. Consistency-wise I suspect rambutan to be similar to jello or custard; bulbous in nature. There probably is some sort of pit in the middle, which I’ll have to watch out for.

What I tasted:

Rambutan is very good! It’s hard for me to distinguish the flavor of this fruit from a longan. To me, they are both nearly identical in taste, smoothly and consistently sweet, with a nice lingering aftertaste. There’s a small pit in the middle, and the consistency is squishy but slightly crunchy; somewhat similar to what I thought it would be.

Dragonfruit

What I thought:

Dragonfruit appears like it will be very sweet, and quite delicious. This fruit looks like something from Avatar or Star Wars, with its strange shape and unique coloring. I think it’ll have an intense tropical flavor (whatever that is), which will smash into my taste buds, exploding like a rainbow in my mouth. As far as consistency goes, dragonfruit looks harder, crunchier, and definitely quite seedy.

What I tasted:

I’m surprisingly let down by dragonfruit. It’s very good, just not explosive, and there was no rainbow in my mouth. I would describe the sweetness of a dragonfruit to be very subtle, especially when compared to a longan or rambutan, which are much sweeter. But interestingly enough, the more I eat it, the more delicious it becomes. The texture of dragonfruit is extremely similar to a kiwi, with a slight crunch.

Longan

What I thought:

Longan reminds me of a grape or a small crabapple, for some reason. I have a hunch that this fruit will be both tart and sweet. Based on the pictures I’ve looked at, longan looks like it’ll be similar in consistency to the rambutan; somewhat similar to jello or a custard, I suppose.

What I tasted:

It’s difficult for me to put into words what longan tastes like. If I had to describe its flavour, I would say this fruit is neutral, with just the right amount of sweetness. A nice calm aftertaste lingers in my mouth after consuming the bulbous flesh. It’s not overpowering. It’s just right, with a nice middle-ground taste, and a smooth consistent sweetness (I’m starting to sound like Gordon Ramsay here).

Pomelo

What I thought:

Just by looking at it, I can tell that the pomelo will be very citrusy. In many ways, pomelo appears very similar to the grapefruits I eat back home, with its strange partitioned fruit meat middle and small white seeds.

What I tasted:

Pomelo tastes almost exactly the same as a grapefruit (which is common in the United States). The one difference between them is that pomelo isn’t as tart as grapefruit, and has a much smoother flavour.

Passion Fruit

What I thought:

To be honest, passion fruit doesn’t look as appetizing as the others. I have a feeling this fruit will have a strange consistency, with its small seeds. Flavor-wise, I’m having a hard time deciding what this fruit will taste like. If I had to guess, it would be very sweet, but I’m not feeling as certain about this one.

What I tasted:

Wow! Passion fruit is delicious! This strange fruit is truly satisfying, with its perfect blend of tartness and sweetness, each complementing one another. The one downside are the seeds, which are plentiful, and crunchy. But flavour-wise this fruit is definitely very tasty, and one of my favorites! On a side note, if you haven’t tried a passion fruit and banana shake, be sure to give it a go. It sounds like a weird combination, but is truly delicious, and in my opinion, quite magical.

When I next fill up my fruit bowl at home with bananas, apples, oranges and pears, I will always remember this day when I feasted on the most bountiful of tropical fruits and recall all the rainbows which popped up in my mouth.