Looks like an alien pod, a futuristic grenade or maybe an egg a dragon would lay. Doesn’t it. Well it’s neither. If you have not seen this before, behold the Dragon Fruit. I had seen it at my local grocery store a few times and always wanted to buy it just because it looks so damn cool. I wanted to see how it looks inside and find out if it tasted as good as it looked. Unfortunately, it always had a price tag of something like $3 – $4 EACH. For the sorry specimens the grocery store usually had (see, no one buys them), I never felt like I’d get my money’s worth.
This past weekend I was shopping for some ingredients for a Thai meal at a local Asian grocery store and here they were. A box full of Dragon Fruit with specimens that looked like they just got off the plane from Singapore or Puerto Rico or wherever the grow them (could be California I guess). The price? $2.99 per POUND. I picked two of them up and stuck them in the fridge where they waited to be served as a conclusion to my Thai dinner alongside dessert.
The fruit reminded me most of the ubiquitous Kiwifruit. It looked real pretty and had these tiny seeds inside. The taste was pretty mild, a little tangy and a little sweet. Overall though, I was a bit disappointed (I am not crazy about Kiwi either). I was hoping for something like a Passion Fruit on steroids, bursting with flavor. Who knows? Maybe the samples I got needed more ripening or something. I probably will not buy Dragon Fruit again, unless they were priced something like $0.50/lb, or if I want to impress some friends with this cool-looking fruit.
Here it is served with a delicious steamed fresh coconut pudding. It went very well with it, because the pudding was very flavorful and sweet. The fruit provided a nice counter balance with its mild slightly tangy taste.
Oven Dried Tomatoes 