How could you not be curious about a fruit that looks like a blowfish mated with a Venus fly trap? The dragonfruit, also called the pitaya or strawberry pear, is one of those strange-looking things you see in a market and just have to try. I had forgotten about eating these in abudance as a child in Guangzhou until I spent a lot of time last year in Zhongshan. There, dragonfruit is sold at almost every supermarket and served as dessert at many higher-end restaurants.
Dragonfruit is also happily consumed in Vietnam, Malaysia, and many other sub-tropical places. They liven up your grocery bag like nothing else, a bright spindly
fucshia thing amidst a sea of cardboard boxes and plastic cartons. The flesh of the fruit, dotted with little seeds, looks and tastes a bit like kiwi. Some people think dragonfruit tastes a bit bland, but that may depend on where you buy them. (There are bland and tasty versions of every kind of fruit.) Dragonfruit with the pink flesh tend be sweeter than the ones with white flesh. But I’ve also had sweet versions of the latter, like this one sent all the way up to a supermarket in Beijing.
You can find dragonfruit jams and wine, and (according to 5 seconds of Googling recipes) use them in homemade salsas or even mooncakes. But I’m a purist. My favorite way of consuming of dragonfruit is diced up in a fruit salad, perhaps with clementine slices and grapes. Or simply cut the whole fruit in half and eat it one delicious scoop at a time. I may try out the salsa recipe at a later date though.
Yum!!
I recently tried my first Dragonfruit, and fell passionately in love.
http://agoddessinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/dragon-fruit.html
I am planning a Dragonfruit sorbet soon.
Dragon fruit is just a cactus pear. It is a spinless form of “Tuna”. Produced by tibular cerus cacti rather than the the more common type, full of spines and having large seeds and an orange or red flesh, found on padded cacti.
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There is a SoBe flavor “Dragon” which contains dragonberry. It is most definitely my favorite. :-)
I LOVE Dragonfruit! It is awesome. It is subtly sweet. The texture is a little like watermelon. The wild look of the Dragonfruit is the complete opposite of it’s subtle taste. It is considered quite nutritious in Vietnam. It is quite easy to eat. You can actually just peel the rind, though I suggest you cut it like a melon.
Dragonfruit is delicious. a nice tip. if you put it in the freezer for a few hours it turns into a nice sorbet.
Ooh…I will definitely try to freezer tip. Thanks!
My sister loves dragonfruit, but when I tried it, it was bland. I wonder if some are not as good as others, just like with other fruit.
Foodaholic – It’s true that some dragonfruit are blander and others are sweeter. It’s usually a hit or miss, but if you get a really sweet one it’s delicious.
i recently had dragonfruit but it was a different variety of it. it had red flesh and tasted kinda like kiwi.
is dragon fruit related to kiwi fruit?
can i find dragon fruit in the philippines?
Yeah most grocery supermarkets sell it
Much cheaper to get them at the wet market when they’re in season though
Vietnamese dragon fruit tastes good, looks good, nutritious, and available year round.
I just wonder why big companies like Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc. and Chiquita Brands International Inc.
are not bringing this great fruit to Americans & people of the world like they did with banana.
I used dragon fruit and kiwi in a project I had great results.I want to taste a sweeter dragonfruit i ate a bland one…yuck.It does taste like kiwi though.
The fruit does look like it would be perfect for icecream. I don’t think these are available in the local supermarkets though. I’ll drop by my favorite green grocer, the lady who owns the shop is a really good friend of mine and she is Chinese. She’d know where to find these fruits if they are available in the US.