Exotic Fruit-Tasting At Home

Our grocery bill at Whole Foods was a solid $50 higher than usual this week because Tiho lingered in the produce aisle and proceeded to pluck every single fruit he's never tasted before into our cart. I was skeptical but intrigued: we usually stock up on apples, bananas, mango and an assortment of berries.

After unloading the bags at home, I retreated into the living room to settle in with my usual time-wasters when I heard Tiho say, "Hey, come back in the kitchen! We're having a date!" 

An exotic fruit-tasting date in our kitchen at 4 PM on Sunday afternoon. Yes.

We tasted everything before declaring Passion Fruit the unanimous winner (even though it marginally resembles boogers when sliced open). While I nibbled (and documented), Tiho basically pounded, resulting in plenty of residual juice and seeds all over his facial scruff. Sexy!

Dragon Fruit (below) was deemed the prettiest and tasted milder than I'd imagined...sort of like a lighter variety of kiwi. The biggest surprise was Rambutan (above). It looks like a sea urchin/spiky tropical bug but contains a sweet grape-like fruit on the inside.

^^Remnants^^

While I'll still choose a strawberry any day, I had a lot of fun on our spontaneous at-home tasting date.

For reference, the fruits we purchased include: Rambutan, Pear Cactus,  Kiwano (horned melon), *Cherimoya, Dragon fruit, Passion fruit and *White Thai Coconut.

*We haven't yet sampled the Cherimoya or Thai Coconut because they need a few more days to ripen. I'm sure we'll find some time to crack 'em open later this week!