Now that summer is here, it's time to celebrate your local fruit experience. Anybody here ever try
mangosteens? It is a life altering experience, my tastebuds have never been the same since that fateful day. The taste is beyond incredible, it is seriously one of nature's best gifts to mankind. The fruit also happens to be jam packed w/ anti-oxidants, so who knew something this tasty can be so healthy.Unfortunately, the fruit is highly seasonal, and almost exclusively grown in SE Asia. Price might be a little high, plus only 1/3 of the fruit is edible. Also, to my knowledge, the fruit is banned in the US because of fears of an asian fruit fly entering the agricultural community. If you're outside the US, then most asian markets will have them around this time of the year.ps: peaches are incredible right now too, juicy!
Aser
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fruits are great!
i like peaches too. and strawberries. kinda old-school, but still... strawberries rule. my girlfriend lives next to a huge strawberry field (ORGANIC --> YES!). i often go there at night and eat for free.
mangos are cool too, but some taste bad and rot pretty fast. i like mirabelles too. delicious! and papaya (pawpaw in English?).
I love me some mangosteen, too. I thought they weren't available in the US either, but I caught some last year at Berkeley Bowl, the local hippie grocery mega-store. I've heard that in order to be sold here, they have to undergo some kind of irradiation process or something else creepy, but (1) I don't know if that's true and (2) damn they taste good.
slush - you can find them in chinatown, just look around spadina. Season started recently, so they'll be around for the next couple of months. On avg, they're $4.99/lb, although I know whole foods sells them for $9.99/lb, they gets the gas face.
A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluot">Pluots/A>
And I want to try these
A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee">Lychee/A>
Lychee are great - easy to find in any decent Chinese market.
Remember those gummy lychee candies they had to discontinue b/c kids were choking on them? Man, I miss those.
I want to try this.
IS THIS THE TRUTH!??????? I CAN GET THEM AT BERKELEY BOWL??
Mangosteen is my favoritest fruit that I've never had. I have always, always wanted to try them and I make my friends who have describe the flavor to me in great detail. I will start checking over there but so far I have never seen one. I always get distracted by the caltrops there, those black buffalo looking chestnutty things.
Dunno about the hollow part, but could you be talking about Nashi? Asian Pear?
So good on a muggy Tokyo Sumer day.
as for local shit, it's all about strawberries in NY right now, although mid-june is about as late in the season as the good one's go. right around memorial day they're untouchable. shit what's next...cherries i think, into raspberries and currants, into peaches, into plums, into apples and grapes. eating some perfectly ripe grapes with sticky juice dripping all over hands and face on a fall day? hell yeah. that might be my favorite.
where do you live where mangosteens are local?
that sounds like a 'chinese apple' - i don't know what they're really called. they're kinda sour, we used to throw them at each other.
Is that what they make Haw Flakes out of? I could never figure out what fruit those were supposed to be.
They make nice red splatter all over your gear, but then you go home and it washes right out, no stains!
according to wikipedia, they're made of the fruit of the hawthorn tree.
also according to wikipedia, "Haw flakes have an uncanny resemblance to the body of the lord. Kids sometimes play communion by acting as a priest while he gives the haw flake to a younger sibling."
Get familiar:
other fruits to try out are goji and acai. fucking amazing and so good for you.
my childhood is contained within these flakes
mangosteens are illegal in 49 of 50 states in the US. Only legal state is Hawaii where limited supplies are currently being grown. The crops have only been planted w/i the last 10 years, and trees require 8-10 yrs to mature to fruit producing stage. They have not been successfully planted in areas outside of the tropics. Also the same export restriction applies to Hawaii.
From what I gather, the most likely source of mangosteens in the US is on the black market. Hence why you sometimes see them in Chinatown and such. I can't explain the Berkeley bowl scenario, maybe them hippies are not as disconnected from the streets as I thought.
They are LEGALLY available in Canada, and can be found in asian markets during the seasons. Right now obviously from Asia and in winter available from S. America.
slush - let us know how you enjoyed your first mangosteen experience.
The best mangosteens I've seen were at the Harvest Wagon, but they were $14.99/lb. I think it's best to buy them at $4.99/lb where there is high turnover, ie in chinatown, like Aser suggested.
so yes, how can we convince la paloma to make a mangosteen sorbeto?
ps: for the Toronto folks inquiring, you can find mangosteens also at.....
http://www.tnt-supermarket.com/
ps: they last around 3-4 days in room temperature, do not put them in the refridgerator, it'll ruin it. The ideal storage temperature is 10C, but I doubt anyone has access to a 10C temperature controlled room. In the ideal conditions, it can be stored for 3-4 weeks.
Is there anyone in Toronto that would be willing to send me one here in Oakland?????
Now I am DYING TO EAT A MANGOSTEEN!!
those and flaky curry pastries:
unfukwitable
ja li jiao for life
the king of tropical fruits is
An acquired taste but you get a high off them
my favourite tropical fruits are Lychees
Rambutan
Rollinia
Soursop
Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit)