I love to try new things, so when I saw this beautiful, rubbery, magenta and green exotic-looking something in the produce section of my market, I had to learn more about it. According to the sign it was called dragon fruit, but what’s that? I guess it's a fruit. How do you eat it? I assume you eat it raw? Do you eat the outside? Do you peel it? What do you do with it? Then I watched as two other shoppers, apparently roommates, began rustling through the box to find the best one. So I asked them what it is, what it tastes like, and what you do with it. They told me that it’s a fruit, that the inside is very similar to kiwi fruit, and that nutritionally it’s a powerhouse. They also warned me not to eat the skin because it could be contaminated with pesticides. They were nice enough to help me pick out a good one.
Once I got home with my dragon fruit I washed it and cut it in half to expose the beautiful white fruit with small black seeds. Like the two shoppers told me, the texture of the fruit inside is very similar to kiwi fruit. I scooped out the flesh and sliced it. I couldn't wait to try it, expecting it to taste like some kind of exotic and perfumy kiwi fruit. Although the texture is very similar to kiwi fruit, the taste is very different. Probably because it is only very mildly sweet, much less so than kiwi fruit. In fact, it was very bland! I didn’t particularly care for the taste, not because it was bad, but because it was so bland, so I ended up using it in my green smoothie, where I wouldn’t notice the taste.
I learned from Wikipedia that dragon fruit is also known as pitahaya and is the fruit of cacti of the genus Hylocereus native to Mexico, Central America, and South America. Dragon fruit is also cultivated in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries as well as Bangladesh, Okinawa, Hawaii, Israel, northern Australia, southern China, and in Cyprus.
Curious about the claim by the two shoppers that dragon fruit is a nutritional powerhouse, I tried looking up the nutritional content at the USDA National Nutrient Database website, and there’s no entry under either dragon fruit or pitahaya. I went to the SELFNutritionData website to no avail as well. So unfortunately I was unable to confirm the nutritional claim of my fellow shoppers, and hopefully they were right. Overall it was an interesting experience!
I learned from Wikipedia that dragon fruit is also known as pitahaya and is the fruit of cacti of the genus Hylocereus native to Mexico, Central America, and South America. Dragon fruit is also cultivated in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries as well as Bangladesh, Okinawa, Hawaii, Israel, northern Australia, southern China, and in Cyprus.
Curious about the claim by the two shoppers that dragon fruit is a nutritional powerhouse, I tried looking up the nutritional content at the USDA National Nutrient Database website, and there’s no entry under either dragon fruit or pitahaya. I went to the SELFNutritionData website to no avail as well. So unfortunately I was unable to confirm the nutritional claim of my fellow shoppers, and hopefully they were right. Overall it was an interesting experience!
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