Cookerati

I like to try new foods from the store that I’ve never even heard of, or seen or tasted.  That can backfire if it’s bad, but most of the time my palate has been pleasantly pleased.  If it’s something we really enjoy, we’ll add it to our pantry or fridge, otherwise it was a good experiment and we can say we tried it.  Yesterday, College Girl (home for a 3 day weekend), my  husband and I tried Kiwano(horned melon), Ugli (Uniq)fruit and Pomegranate.

• Kiwano – It’s also called horned melon, although to me it’s not melonish at all.  It originates in Kalahari, Africa where it grows wild, and it has been cultivated in New Zealand and California.  The horns aren’t sharp, but they can be difficult to get your hand around.  Inside are plenty (a great deal) of seeds and a jello like pulp.  The kiwano is part of the cucumber family, so it isn’t surprising that one of our thoughts is that it tasted like a  cross between a cucumber and a kiwi.  The other comparison we came up with was lime jello.  My husband didn’t enjoy the seeds so much, although he eats cucumber seeds all summer long without a complaint.  I just swallowed the seeds along with the jello parts and it was fine for me.  It’s not as sweet as a kiwi, but much sweeter than a cucumber with a nice flavor.  (I have read that it can be bitter tasting.) It was an expensive little fruit to try – I think 3.99.  I don’t know if I would buy it again, simply because of the price.  My husband isn’t sure he liked it enough because he didn’t care for the seeds and my daughter agreed, but thought the flavor was fine .  I wasn’t bothered by the seeds, and liked the flavor, so if it wasn’t for the price, I would buy it.  

• Ugli Fruit – Originated in Jamaica (pronounced Hoo-glee).  This is a citrus fruit with really thick skin and very few seeds.  We all thought it was a cross between a bland orange and a bland grapefruit.  Ours was neither really sweet, nor really tart, but had a little of each.  I don’t know if we would try it again, just because we preferred oranges and grapefruit and would probably buy those instead.  However, if you were going to make a fruit salad and wanted a more even flavor, this might be something to use.  This fruit also goes by the name Uniq – I think in order to make the name not sound so bad.

• Pomegranate – Originated in the Mideast, but now is cultivated all over including California.This fruit is very much en vogue right now, but I hadn’t tried it before yesterday.  I peeled back the skin and used a spoon to scoop the arils out into a bowl. When you look at all the little arils, they look like burgundy colored jewels.  My daughter said she wished she had beads exactly like them. As for the taste – they were scrumptious, better than we imagined.  We drink pomegranate juice all of the time, and yet the fruit is soooo much better tasting.  How can that be?  I put the arils into a bowl on the table and we would grab a small hand full and throw it in our mouths every so often.

While the pomegranate probably cost as much as the kiwano, we’re more likely to pay for this because there’s a lot more useable fruit in it than in the kiwano.  We might buy the ugli fruit, but might not.  I’ll get a kiwano once a year for me, because I liked it, but only as a splurge.