Fruit Maven » summer

Rainier Cherry

Fruit Maven — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:07:37 +0000

Apparently if you have gout, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Pretty. Red and yellow on the outside, creamy colored inside.

AROMA 3 out of 5 stars

Very little.

TEXTURE 3.5 out of 5 stars

Nice firm flesh with a big old seed.

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

Nicely sweet and a bit lighter in flavor than the more common, Bing Cherry.

OVERALL 3.63 out of 5 stars

FRUIT Cherry	PEAK Summer	PURCHASED Farmer’s Market
VARIETY Rainier	GROWN California

White Mulberry

Fruit Maven — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:08:57 +0000

If you tend toward the macabre, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 1 out of 5 stars

Eww.

AROMA 2 out of 5 stars

Meh.

TEXTURE 4 out of 5 stars

Fine.

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

SWEET!!! and a little more complicated than most of the black mulberries I have tried.

OVERALL 2.75 out of 5 stars

FRUIT Mulberry	PEAK Spring/Summer	PURCHASED Farmer’s Market
VARIETY White (likely Tehama)	GROWN California

Rambutan

Fruit Maven — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:58:02 +0000

If you’ve been looking for a replacement for your 80’s style koosh ball, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Fuschia pink ball with dark, soft spikes. There is a translucent eyeball of flesh inside.

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

Very mild, subtle sweetness with an earthy undertone.

TEXTURE 2.5 out of 5 stars

Gelatinous, firm and juicy. There is a prominent seed in the middle and the skin of the seed seems to like to stick to the fruit bits, which is annoying.

TASTE 3.5 out of 5 stars

Mild and sweet; Reminds me of apples and cotton candy.

OVERALL 3.5 out of 5 stars

These are certainly a little bite of adventure. I loved digging my thumbs in to the hairy shells and then popping out the gelatinous globe. My inner adolescent was dying to run out of the house screaming and holding my eye in order to terrify the neighbor kids by popping it in my mouth. But alas, Mr. Maven beat me to it.

FRUIT

Rambutan

VARIETY

Unknown

PEAK

Winter/Summer

ORIGIN

Southeast Asia

GROWN

Unknown

PROVIDED BY

Specialty Produce

NOTES

I only had four of these and for some reason (we’ll call it excitement), I was too impatient to research these prior to eating all of them. Yes, all of them. Had I done so, I would have realized these were slightly past their ideal season (Dec/Jan), which probably explains the slightly dark patches. Nonetheless they were delicious. You can see more cool pictures of them and similar fruit here. As a sidenote, I liked them much better than longan.

RECIPES

Asian Tropical Fruit Salad
Rambutan Drink

Purple Mangosteen

Fruit Maven — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:24:22 +0000

If you own a t-shirt that says “Queen Bee” and people bring you gifts in hope of gaining your approval, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 5 out of 5 stars

People! Fruit doesn’t get much cooler than this. The bottom of the hard, leathery skin has a flower. The number of petals on the flower will match the number of bright white segments of flesh inside. Hazzah!Plus it has the cutest little stem.

AROMA 5 out of 5 stars

Smells like sweet, slightly acidic, tropical flowers. Divine.

TEXTURE 2.5 out of 5 stars

Thick exterior shell that was soft in spots and quite hard in others. I’ve read that they are pretty soft when picked from the tree and harden over the next few days. Flesh is soft and stringy, somewhat slimy with each segment having either a tough center or a seed.

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

Very sweet, slightly bitter and medicinal. Kind of tastes like mature fruit punch.

OVERALL 4.13 out of 5 stars

If I had to guess, I would say these are probably amazing when picked perfectly ripe, right off the tree, because there is a lot of potential here. They have an extremely interesting and exotic flavor but the texture and difficulty of cutting into them is a big drawback for me. The fact that the flower petals match the number of segments inside is just phenomenol. A vase full of these for Valentine’s Day would make my heart explode. Ba-bye red roses, there’s a new diva in town.

FRUIT

Mangosteen

VARIETY

n/a

PEAK

Summer/Winter

GROWN

Unknown

PROVIDED BY

Specialty Produce

NOTES

This is a high maintenance and sexy piece of fruit. It also goes by the name “Queen of Fruits“, which is about as pretentious a nickname as you can get. Apparently Queen Victoria used to offer one hundred pounds to anyone who could bring her fresh Mangosteens. When I bought some of these at the asian market last week, the woman stopped in the middle of ringing up my items, held up the bag and looked me straight in the eye, “You know these cost $14 right?” “um…yes.” “You still want them?” “Oh yes, I plan to sell them to Queen Victoria.”

RECIPES

Mangosteen Clafouti
Thai Beef and Mangosteen Soup

Manzano Banana

Keri — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:39:57 +0000

If your new year’s resolution was to increase your ability to wait and wait and wait and wait and… wait, then this is the fruit for you!

APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Totally cute, small, yellow banana with pale, off-white flesh.

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

Strong, flowery, banana fragrance with a little bit of something bright, maybe pineapple.

TEXTURE 3 out of 5 stars

Soft with a cool feel. Dry!

TASTE 4.5 out of 5 stars

Yummy combination of banana and pineapple and maybe a bit of strawberry.

OVERALL 3.88 out of 5 stars

This is a diva of a banana if ever I saw one. You have to wait to eat it until the skin is black (not just a little black: BLACK) otherwise it is just “blah” with a tannic aftertaste. But, if you wait (and I mean WAIT – like three weeks well past what you think is a reasonable wait for a banana) then you will be rewarded with a tropical disco in your mouth — smooth, creamy, pineapply, strawberry, banana love. Oh and then the taste will linger and linger until eventually you think, “What is that weird flavor in my mouth? Oh – Is it STILL that banana? Good lord!” (This banana made me wait so long to eat it that I am overwhelmed with the use of ALLCAPS).

FRUIT

Banana

VARIETY

Manzano

PEAK

All Year

GROWN

Colombia

PURCHASED

Grocery Store

NOTES

Some think the banana is good for fertility (hmm), while others are so convinced that the banana is bad luck that they won’t even let their comrades wear fruit of the loom undies. These seem like a tragic confluence of the two.

RECIPES

Manzano Banana Cake
Manzano Bananas wrapped in Croissants and Honey