Adventures in Produce: Yellow Dragonfruit

 

                   

                                                                            

This is the yellow dragon fruit. I came across this piece of fruit at my local grocery store and realized that I have never tried it nor heard of it. Now, I have heard of red and pink dragon fruit, but I also have not tried them. I knew that with this assignment I was not going to try a vegetable because I am a picky person, so therefore I knew that fruit was my best bet. I decided to pick the dragon fruit because 1) Although I have never seen them, I was very curios if my grocery store even had it. 2) I have seen them on my social media feeds, but it was mostly the red and pink dragon fruit, not the yellow, and 3) dragon fruit are not common here in the U.S, so I wanted to see for myself what it is about them that people enjoy. 

Here is some background on this fruit, it is referred as la pitahaya which is the Spanish translation, and it is considered a cactus fruit. It is grown on a specific cactus called Hylocereus and while it does initially grow with thorns, they are chopped off when picked and harvested. The specific name for the yellow dragon fruit is Hylocereus Megalanthus, and the best time to eat this fruit is early summer to fall. These fruits are mostly grown in South America but can also be found and harvested in other countries across the world. 

When I first grabbed the dragon fruit, I wasn't expecting it to feel as soft as it is on the outside. It almost reminded me of an orange peel that has the combined smoothness and ridges from the little textures. It almost felt a little too soft and if I were to use a lot of force to squish it, it would fall apart. The outside had a very distant floral smell but not anything that I could immediately identify. I had decided that was going to eat this fruit raw. From the videos I have seen, a lot of people enjoy it just the way it is by just simply cutting it open and removing the flesh from the skin. 

I think that this is my first time ever trying this fruit, that eating it as is would be the best option that way, I don't have any other food or ingredients messing with the flavor and not being able to tell if I will enjoy it as is. Right when I cut it in half, I got a subtle smell of cactus and a hint of something floral. It wasn't strong or didn't smell like nothing. The first thing I saw were these many little black seeds and a very translucent flesh. The texture and looks of the flesh almost remind me of a kiwi. 

                                 

As you can see on the inside it is nothing like the outside of the fruit, it is very translucent and is also very juicy as you can see from the cutting board where it leaked as soon as I cut it open. The cutting process was very easy and not difficult at all. It was almost like slicing through a stick of room temperature butter, very smooth. The picture below is the flesh of the dragon fruit removed from the skin and there are no remaining bits of fruit stuck. Its' all cut away from the skin with no issues. 

Now comes the big reveal, the taste test. It took some effort to be able to pick it up with my fingers because the pieces were very slippery. As soon as I put it in my mouth and started to chew the first thing, I got was a burst of sweetness from the translucent part of the fruit and a bit of a crunchy texture from the seeds. The ultimate thing that surprised me about this fruit is that it is exactly like a kiwi. As soon as I took a bite my mind automatically assumed it was a kiwi. The texture, the taste, the moisture it holds, it all screams kiwi but a sweeter version. 

normally I don't like very sweet things, but the sweetness gets overpowered by the water content almost like a watermelon and balances it out. This is a fruit that you will eat and can't tell if you like it but will continue to eat it. the only small thing I don't like about this fruit is the number of seeds and how i gives off a weird texture but other than that I enjoyed eating this fruit. I know that I could not eat this every day, but I will continue to get them and eat them at least once every two-three weeks. If you have never tried dragon fruit then please do, I don't think you will be disappointed in this fruit and will enjoy it very much like I did.