by Christine Vrey
I was playing a game the other day, in which you have to come up
with fruit that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Apple, banana,
cherry…. and that is about where I hit a blank. My epic failure at this
game made me do some research and what I discovered was a whole world
of delicious looking fruit that I had never even known about! I was
completely shocked to find that there are actually hundreds of different
types of fruit (no need to include them all as omissions in the
comments), most of which I had never even heard of. This list is not to
rank the fruit, but rather just to inform you about them. The only fruit
on this list I consider ranked is No: 1, as it deserves the spot, in
clearly being the coolest fruit on the planet. How many of these
exotically delicious fruit have you tried?
20
Sugar Apple
Annona squamosa
Sugar Apples or Sweetsop, is native to the tropical Americas, but is
also widely grown in Pakistan, India and the Philippines. The fruit
looks a bit like a pine cone, and are about 10 cm in diameter. Under the
hard, lumpy skin is the fragrant, whitish flesh of the fruit, which
covers several seeds inside, and has a slight taste of custard.
19
Mammee Apple
Mammea americana
Mammee Apple, Mamey Apple or Santo Domingo Apricot is an evergreen
tree, native to South America, which was introduced to various other
regions of the world including West Africa and South East Asia. They can
also be found in Florida and Hawaii. The Mammee apple is actually a
berry and gets up to 20 cm in diameter. It has a thick outer rind, with
soft orange to yellow pulp on the inside. It usually had one seed in the
centre, but larger fruit have been known to carry up to 4. The pulp is
sweet and fragrant.
18
Cherymoya
Annona cherimola
Cherymoya, or custard apple, is a deciduous plant found in the high
lying mountainous areas of South America. The fruit is vaguely round and
is found with 3 types of skin – Impressa (indented), Tuberculate
(covered in nodules) or intermediate (a combination of the first two).
The flesh inside the skin is very fragrant, white, juicy and has a
custard like consistency. It is said that the fruit tastes like a
combination of banana, passion fruit, papaya and pineapple. Mark Twain
said in 1866 “ the most delicious fruit known to men, cherimoya”
17
Platonia
Platonia insignis
Platonia or Bacuri is a large tree (reaching 40m) found in the rain
forests of Brazil and Paraguay. The fruit become the size of a orange,
and have a thick yellow peel which oozes a yellow latex when pressed.
Inside there is a sticky white pulp, wrapped around several black seeds,
which tastes pleasant and has a sweet and sour flavor.
16
Cocona
Solanum sessiliflorum
Cocona fruit is another tropical fruit found in the mountainous
regions of South America. It grows on a small shrub, and can
miraculously grow from seed to fruit in less than 9 months, after which
the fruit will take another 2 months to ripen. The fruit is a berry and
comes in red, orange or yellow. It has a similar appearance to tomatoes,
and is said to taste like a mixture between tomatoes and lemons.
15
Breadfruit
Artocarpus altilis
Breadfruit is a large tree, in the mulberry family, found native to
the Philippines and all the islands in Southeast Asia. The fruit is
similar to bananas, as they can be eaten raw when ripe, and cooked when
unripe. The ripe fruit is soft and sweet, while the unripe fruit is
harder and starchy, which is where it got the name breadfruit from, as
it tastes similar to freshly baked bread when cooked.
14
Duku
Lansium domesticum
Duku or lungsat are two very similar fruits found throughout Asia.
They come from the same family, look and taste identical, with one
difference. The skin of the lungsat contains a latex substance, which is
not poisonous, but causes the skin to stick slightly to the fruit,
whereas the duku has no latex and the peel is removed with more ease.
Inside, the fruit has 5 segments, some of which has bitter seeds inside.
It is a very sweet fruit and can be prepared in a number of different
ways, including being canned in syrup or being dried like raisins.
13
Safou
Dacryodes edulis
Safou is an evergreen tree found in the humid tropical forests of
Africa, as far south as Angola, and as far north as Nigeria. The fruits
are also known as African pears and are oblong dark blue to violet
fruits up to 14cm in length, with pale green flesh inside. These fatty
fruits have been said to have the ability to put an end to starvation in
Africa, as 48% of the fruit is made up of essential fatty acids, amino
acids, Vitamins and triglycerides. The have estimated that a one hectare
plantation would be able to produce 7-8 tons of oil, and all parts of
the plant can be used.
12
Jabuticaba
Myrciaria cauliflora
Jabuticaba, or the Brazilian grape tree, is a very strange plant
native to the South Eastern parts of Brazil. What makes this plant so
strange is that it fruits from its trunk. No, I did not make that up,
and no the picture has not been photo shopped. Initially, yellowish
white flowers will appear all over the trunk and main branches, these
flowers will then turn into fruit, about 3 – 4cm in diameter. Inside the
thick purple skin is the soft gelatinous flesh of the fruit, along with
1 – 4 black seeds. The fruit is sweet and can be eaten as is or made
into a wine or liqueur. Unfortunately, the fruit does not keep long when
off the tree and will start to ferment after about 3 or 4 days.
11
Rambutan
Nephelium lappaceum
Rambutan is an odd fruit that looks like a furry strawberry from the
outside, and much like a lychee on the inside. It is native to South
East Asia, but has been spread and a smaller “wild” version can be found
in Costa Rica, where it is called a Chinese sucker. The fruit is an
oval shape and about 3-6 cm in diameter. Inside the slightly hard, but
easily peal able skin, you can find a soft fruit that tastes slightly
sweet, with a possible sour tinge.
10
Noni
Morinda citrifolia
Noni, otherwise known by many different names around the world,
including the great moringa, Indian mulberry, dog dumpling and pace, is
related to the coffee bean plant and is native throughout South East
Asia and Australasia, but is cultivated throughout the tropics. The tree
carries fruit throughout the year and the fruit tend to have a very
pungent odour when ripening (also known as the cheese fruit or vomit
fruit). Despite the smell, the fruit is high in fibre, vitamin A,
protein, Iron and calcium, and is the staple diet on many Pacific
Islands. The fruit can either be cooked into a stew or eaten raw with
salt.
9
Marula
Sclerocarya birrea
The Marula is a deciduous tree native to Southern and Eastern Africa.
The distribution of the tree throughout Africa, follow the migratory
patterns of the Bantu people, as it was an important source of food, and
they planted more trees along their way. The green fruit ripens and
turns yellow, the white flesh inside is succulent and has a very
distinct flavor. After falling off the tree, the fruit will start to
ferment and these draw in animals, like elephants and baboons, for a
slightly alcoholic treat. The fruit is also used to make a popular
liqueur called Amarula, which can be found at any duty-free liquor store
at airports.
8
Salmonberry
Rubus spectabilis
Salmonberrys are native to the west coast of North America,
stretching from midway through Alaska, all the way down to California.
They are found in moist forests and create dense thickets. The fruit
looks similar to raspberries, but are more orange in color. They are
sweet when eaten raw, but are often processed into juice, wine, candies
and jams.
Salak fruit, also known as the snake fruit, comes from a species of
palm native to Indonesia. These fruit grow at the base of the palm, and
gained the name snake fruit from their red brown, scaly skin. The skin
is easily removed, and inside are 3 white, sweet segments that each
contain a large black inedible seed. When eaten, the fruit have a
slightly acidic but sweet flavor, and the consistency of apples.
Bael, wood apple or stone apple is a species native to India, but
found throughout Southeast Asia. Bael is a smooth fruit with a woody
peel that is colored yellow, green or grey. The hard, woody, outer peel
is so hard that it has to be cracked with a hammer. Inside is an
aromatic yellow pulp with several hairy seeds. The flesh can be eaten
either dried or fresh. From the fresh fruit, a juice called sharbat can
be made, adding water, sugar and lime juice to the pulp. It takes just
one large fruit to make 6 liters of sharbat.
5
Star Apple
Chrysophyllum cainito
The Star apple is a fruit native to the low-lying areas of Central
America and the West Indies. The underside of the evergreen leaves shine
with a golden color from a distance, and the tree carries small white
to purple flowers with a sweet fragrance. The fruit is round, purple and
has a thick, latex filled skin. If the fruit is cut horizontally, a
clear star pattern can be seen in the white purple pulp. The fruit is
delicious fresh, with a intense sweet taste.
4
Star fruit
Averrhoa carambola
Star fruit or carambola is a fruit tree native to the Philippines,
but can be found throughout Southeast Asia, East Asia, South America,
Florida and Hawaii. This fruit has five ridges running down its length,
which when cut sideways, makes the star pattern after which it is named.
The fruit is rich in Vitamin C, and Antioxidants. The fruit turns a
bright yellow when ripe, has a waxy skin and the entire fruit is edible,
juicy and crunchy.
3
Horned melon
Cucumis metuliferus
The horned melon, also known as African cucumber or jelly melon, is
an annual vine native to Africa, but can now be found grown in
California, Australia, New Zealand and Chile as well. When ripe, the
melon has a thick spiky yellow outer skin, with bright green, jelly like
flesh. The flesh is often compared to the taste of a banana, with the
texture of the seedy part of a cucumber or tomato. The thick skin can be
eaten and is a good source of vitamin C and fibre.
Pitaya, or dragon fruit, is a cactus fruit that can be found
throughout Asia, Australasia, North America and South America, even
though they are believed to be native to Mexico originally. There are
two main types of pitaya, the sour types, typically eaten in the
Americas, and sweet types found across Asia. The fruit comes in 3
different color varieties, Labelled as red, yellow and Costa Rican
pitayas. The “red” fruits are generally a bright magenta color on the
outside, with yellow flesh. The Yellow Pitaya is yellow inside and out,
and the Costa Rican pitayas are magenta on the outside and the inside.
They smell deliciously fragrant and most have a sweet flavor similar to a
kiwi fruit.
1
Miracle Fruit
Synsepalum dulcificum
The miracle fruit, or sweet berries, is a very strange berry native
to West Africa. What makes the fruit strange and miraculous, is
miraculin (a sugar substitute), which is found in large quantities in
the fruit, combined with a glycoprotein. The fruit itself does not
contain a lot of sugar, and tastes only mildly sweet but when eaten, the
glycoprotein binds to the tongues taste buds, which, for about an hour
after eating the fruit, distorts any other taste into sweetness. With
that effect you could technically eat a lemon, and it would taste like a
ball of syrup. Although the definite reason for this occurrence is not
fully understood, it would seem as if the miraculin distorts the shape
of the sweetness receptors in the tongue so that they pick up on acid
instead of sweetness. The sweetness receptors on your tongue then
transmit to the brain to taste sweetness when they come in contact with
any acidity. In the 70s attempts were made to commercialize and sell the
fruit as a diet aid, as it has the potential to turn any meal sweet,
without affecting your calorie intake. These attempts were shattered
when the FDA declared it a food additive, due to pressure from sugar
companies who could foresee big losses in profits. In the last two years
the berries have been making a comeback, by being the guest star of
many tasting parties in the states. The berries are dried and exported,
and the party guests each have one and then taste all kinds of common
foods to experience a new taste sensation with every bite.
