Sara Sarver

Mmmmm…. dragon fruit.  Perhaps one of my favorites of all tropical fruits, dragon fruit not only tastes great but it sure looks good, too.  Check it out.

Although it’s bright magenta skin with green pointy scales may look frightening, the inside of this particular fruit is rather friendly.  There are 2 different types of pink dragon fruit – one with a white interior (the most common), and the other with a shade of pinkish red matching the outside.  The one with a darker interior is what you are probably more accustomed to seeing in the States, but in juice form.  I’ve heard that there is another variety featuring yellow flesh both inside and out, but I’ve never actually seen it for myself.  Who knows.

Another interesting bit about this fruit is how it grows.  The dragonfruit is actually the product of a certain type of cactus.  It is a long, windy variety of cactus that tends to grow upward (climbing something else, such as another tree or sturdy plant, or a pole in farming situations), then droop down much like a Weeping Willow Tree.  The fruits start out as a beautiful, large, white flower at the ends of each spine before evolving into the brightly colored orbs we can later eat.

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When searching for the perfect piece to bring home from the market, the process used to choose a dragonfruit is quite similar to choosing a ripe avocado. It must not be too hard, able to be squeezed gently, and have a deep, rich color to it. A lady at a nearby open-air market taught me that the deeper the color of the skin, the sweeter the fruit would be. Lighter skin implies a more tart flavor, and apparently, that’s what some (in my opinion strange) people like.

The easiest way to enjoy a dragonfruit is to simply slice it in half, like the picture above, and scoop out the inside in as near to one piece as you can get.  Then, you may proceed to cut it into cubes or slices for eating.  Even cooler is that you could even re-use the skin as a bowl to serve up the pieces!  The texture of a dragon fruit is similar to that of a kiwi, in that it is scoopable and has many tiny edible seeds within it.  The flavor is quite mild, yet sweet, and tastes best when chilled.  I once heard someone else describe the taste as a cross between a kiwi and cucumber.  Whatever it is, it’s refreshing and I like it.

So, now you know about dragonfruit.  If there ever comes a time that your local supermarket carries this, you no longer have an excuse not to try it.  Go ahead, you just may like it, too!