Snakefruit

I'm a sucker for fruit and am always game to try a new variety.  We spent this Dashain holiday in Krabi, Thailand and at breakfast one morning a weird looking fruit was set out.  I thought at first it was a type of lychee, but wasn't.  After some googling I've decided it was Salek, or snakefruit.  No one else in our group wanted to try it.  I wasn't going to be put off by the chicken foot appearance and decided to go for it; it was not good.  I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't ripe and next time I run across it I'll give it another go, but more hesitantly and with less anticipation.

Today in Kathmandu

We started the day with a stroll to work alongside this:

And ended the day patiently waiting for our strawberries to soak in iodine:

Walk to school

Tiny guava

This was left at our house and I had to cut into it to figure out what it was.  Pretty sure it's a mini guava.  While I love guava, I usually scoop out all the seeds and this tiny one had the seeds throughout.  Sure is cute to look at though.

Dragon fruit

Dragon fruit innards are sometimes white and sometimes this amazing purple - impossible for me to tell from the outside.  This purple is always a shock when I cut into one.  When the fruit is perfectly ripe we love it, get it just a little off however and it tastes pretty flavorless, especially compared to other fruits in Taiwan.

Fruit market

Jujube (I think), bell fruit and buddha's head

Guava

I'd never had a guava before, and when I first got one at the market shortly after arriving in Taichung I didn't like it.  But lately, paired with plum powder, this is my favorite snack.  I've gone through 4 this week!  I scoop out the seeds, but some of my students have told me they like to eat them.  I've heard there are pink varieties in other places in the world, I'm keeping my eye out to try them!

Passion fruit

A little plain looking on the outside, passion fruit is anything but plain on the inside.  Just looking at this makes my mouth pucker!  Throw some on a salad, put it in your ice green tea, top a bowl of ice cream with it or my favorite - cut it in half and eat it straight with a spoon.

Buddha's head

This is called the custard-apple, sugar-apple, or my favorite: buddha's head.  It's really sweet and soft.  Too mushy for my tastes so I can only eat a little bit, but Jeremiah likes it.

Bell Fruit

Let me introduce you to a new fruit we just tried - the bell fruit (one website told me the pinyin for this fruit is lián wù). With many different names depending on what country you are in, wax apple seems to be the most common name, however it doesn't taste much like an apple. The inside is white and pretty juicy though still firm. In the center is a small seed surrounded by cotton candy looking fluff (I cut that part out because the texture weirds me out). If you run across one I recommend you try it. I cut it in quarters, remove the fluff and eat. Delicious.