Today, Charlie Wilson of Help Yourself Cafe, gives me a taste test of two unusual tropical fruits…
Watch now to find out if I liked ANY of them! LOL!
Here’s to humor…
Your question of the day: What weird tropical fruits have tried?
Click here, scroll down to the bottom of the page and leave your comments now!
To check out Help Yourself Cafe, click here!
Live Awesome!
Kev
Top-notch experts finally reveal how to get clean, pure drinking water. Discover their secrets now!
Click here to learn which water filters are best, what you can do to protect yourself from toxins in your water, and how to get the most nutrients into your home-grown foods.
Weight Loss Motivation, Holistic Nutrition, and Bodyweight Exercises for Busy People
Click here to find out how to juggle your health and fitness to stop feeling sluggish and lazy. The Busy Person's Fitness Solution combines weight loss motivation, sensible nutrition and simple bodyweight exercises in a way that will get you amazing results!
With five easy principles, High Raw clears the confusion about nutrition science and gently encourages you to create a lifestyle of sustainable health (quite effortlessly, in fact.)
Click here to download the book for FREE and learn that health doesn't have to be hard!
Discover how Angela Stokes lost over 160 pounds using a completely natural approach to weight loss. With the RevitaLive plan, you can release excess weight and stop emotional cravings and eatings...lasting change IS possible - and proven!
Click here to learn how you can get the support and knowledge you need to help you get the weight loss results you're looking for.
5:28 pm on January 25th, 2010
Wasn’t that great food! I love it when we are introduced to new foods! Hope you are having fun here in Key West!
5:36 pm on January 25th, 2010
Wow…horsepoo is right. What was that again, black zapote??? I tell you, better you Kevin, than me on that tasting expedition. Love to learn about new foods and ways to prepare.
I just discovered Phillip McCluskey. What a delightful person. Loved the variety of edible flowers he used in his sprout salad. I am really interesting in learning more about wild edibles this year. So anytime you can include that kind of information would be appreciated.
Well now, Molly is just a hoot!!!
I love it. When she laughed I thought what mascot she could be…
I wonder how Johnny 5 would react to Molly?
Nice to laugh wildly on Monday with my smoothie…
Dawni
5:39 pm on January 25th, 2010
Momey Sapote…. Looks like baked sweet potato.. Tastes like baked sweet potato…. But its a fruit! Amazing taste and makes for an incredible raw “sweet potato” pie!
5:56 pm on January 25th, 2010
Soursop! It’s big and gnarly looking, kind of like a porcupine but not prickly. The first taste is a bit shocking, the second getting better, and the third, you’re hooked! Unique and delicious, makes great pudding with coconut creme and a little nutmeg. It takes patience to get the numerous well-rooted seeds out, but it’s well worth it. Aloha, Kuru
6:00 pm on January 25th, 2010
The oddest fruit I think I ever tried is starfruit which I had in Australia, its kerneled like corn, and yet its is so surprisingly sweet, its “the balm.”
6:22 pm on January 25th, 2010
Hi,
I went to Costa Rica and I try some fruit call CAIMITO is purple color sweet and delicious.
Another of the fruits that I was very impress was the GRANADILLA it looks like mucus.Delicious!!
6:23 pm on January 25th, 2010
Mamey sapote, black sapote, white sapote & sapodilla’s. Mamey sapote is my favorite of the bunch…sort of like sweet potato pie in texture. Sapodilla reminds me of a pear texture. I don’t recall being impressed by the black sapote. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to try that one
6:33 pm on January 25th, 2010
When I lived in Florida I couldn’t get enough Lychee nuts. I ate so many that I decided to start saving the seeds so I could string a necklace. The firm outer skin will peel easily and expose a grape-like textured fruit, but it has it’s own unique sweet flavor. I hope you can find some while you’re in Key West! Here’s a photo of the variety that ate.
http://howtobepretty.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/167932091_454322795f.jpg
6:37 pm on January 25th, 2010
That was crazy. The bird I mean. Too funny.
The strangest fruit I ever had was in Kona Hawaii. I can’t remember the name of it but I sure can remember the smell and the taste. Smelled up the whole condo. Must say no one could stomach it. It was red and looked like a bell pepper but was soft and it is the fruit that grows the cashew nut on top of it. But we were warned not to eat the cashew for it is poisonous until it is cooked. Makes me wonder about truly raw cashews.
Fun to try new things though.
6:50 pm on January 25th, 2010
If you’re in Florida and you don’t check out Hippocrates, there’s something seriously wrong with you and this show.
6:56 pm on January 25th, 2010
I would have to go with the Lychee nut as well. I wish I had known of this cafe while we were down there! Hope you had a chance to go to Mallory Square for the sunset celebrations!
7:06 pm on January 25th, 2010
wow! molly’s cute! awesome bird
hm, unique fruits. You know Ive heard so much about black sapote, jack fruit and others but never actually tried those.
I have had what was I’m pretty sure, a dragon fruit though, and I remember it was very challenging to separate out the seeds, but had a nice kiwi-like taste.
help yourself is a really cool place!
7:18 pm on January 25th, 2010
wow there is another Avi right above me, cool!
I’ve tried the gourd fruit, the ymake gourds out of it, and that was not that palatable.
My favorite is Anona fruit in Peru, it’s creamy and would make the best smoothie.
I bought Noni at a market in Peru too, and it melted a little in my backpack as I walked back to the hotel, and it became VERY PUNGENT.It smelled like blue cheese, kind of old. But I LOVED IT!
8:01 pm on January 25th, 2010
KEV..
YAH ..Im Loving the Black Sapote’s right now..In west palm beach.
Great Low to no sugar fruit..Just add a bit of vanilla stevia mix it all up AND WOW than you Got a HOME RUN Desert!!!
SO I Agree with Barbara..YOU just have to treat yourself to at least A Raw food Buffet Meal at HIPPOCRATES Health Institute..It has to be the Best in The US if not the world..In fact there next Awsome free event is This THURSDAY called (SAVE YOUR LIFE Lecture) Open house with Brian clement!! With some Food Sampling of what they serve from there Cafe/ Buffet..
http://www.hippocratesinst.org/Special-Events.aspx
Anyhow Maybe I’ll CE you there :=).. And Can hook ya up with a few coconuts or even go coconut hunting if u have time.
Look me up if u want if ur close to WPB.
Safe travels to you…
8:08 pm on January 25th, 2010
Hi Kevin,
Most recently I tried durian. I didn’t like it. I haven’t heard you guys talk too much about it. I know some others in the raw food world love it. One person encouraged me to tried it again, but to blend it up with coconut water. I may do that someday. To me it tasted and smelled like papaya, which I do not like either. It was certainly an experience though
God Bless you two,
Marie
8:10 pm on January 25th, 2010
The bird was so funny!!!!
8:19 pm on January 25th, 2010
That eggfruit didn’t look ripe on the outside. Maybe it is a different variety than I’ve had. Did it taste astringent? When they are at their best they are creamy and taste like caramel to me:-) That black fruit looked wicked!
I think durian is the strangest fruit I’ve tried, just since it looks like the meanest fruit on the block, daring you to eat it—and driving you away with it’s smell.
8:27 pm on January 25th, 2010
Smart bird with a pea size brain and very good vocal cords to boot.
8:52 pm on January 25th, 2010
I love the cockatoo!!
When we have visited India, I got to eat lots of different fruits. Some I liked and some…well, it’s an acquired taste. I loved the cherimoya (or custard apple) and the loquats.
8:58 pm on January 25th, 2010
I have started an EFTC Exotic Fruit Tasting Club!
I am the president!
I have tried Cherimoya, and have one growing right now!
I have also recently tried Kiwano!
I love finding strange fruit, taking them home, researching about them,and then finally tasting them!
I am sure to research first because, for example the skin of the Cherimoya can be toxic and must be handled with care! I think same goes for the seeds! I did plant one though and it is growing! So much FUN!
9:08 pm on January 25th, 2010
To Tyra, Cashews must be handled with care, they cause skin rashes much like poison ivy and yes the fruit itself is toxic!!!
Just like mushrooms, you need to know what you are doing or eating!
9:14 pm on January 25th, 2010
I love lychee!!! And Durian too. We dont get much variety up in Canada, especially this time of year. I just tried a Karela. bitter.
I was to Orlando at DW for 2 days and stopped at Cafe 118 in winter park on our way to Naples. Loved Cafe 118, hope you get to check it out. I also hope you can go by Hippocrates and show us!! I wasnt able to do that (long way around!)
enjoy Florida!
9:21 pm on January 25th, 2010
Ahhh! I’m sitting here very jealous of all the traveling to various climates that you two get to do. It looks so warm down there!
9:27 pm on January 25th, 2010
I spent 14 years of childhood in the Philippines and had more kinds of fruit than I can remember now. I do remember lanzones, duhats, santols, jackfruit, breadfruit and star apples. I loved them all. It helps to have them from childhood. The best part of eating raw is enjoying many fruits again. For 4 yrs recently I lived in So. Fla. on a lot that had a big black sapote tree. I absolutely love them! Some people call them chocolate pudding fruit and that’s what it tastes like to me. I really miss them. There were also several kinds of mangos, citrus (incl. pomelo), guavas, key limes, papayas and otheres. I still eat papaya almost every day here in St. Petersburg, Fla. Oh, I had egg fruit from a farmers’ market. Yum! And though durian smells bad, the taste is heavenly – that’s why they cost so much.
9:36 pm on January 25th, 2010
White sapote (“ice cream fruit”), strawberry guava, shaddock (a type of pomelo, but with its own unique taste and shape, native to SE Asia).
10:03 pm on January 25th, 2010
I live on Maui and have tried every fruit mentioned. We live on a farm and have many of them. Loquats, jackfruit, 3 types of dragon fruit, suriname cherries and on and on and I love each of them!!!! Delicious! I’ve even tried the ones you tried Kevin!
11:56 pm on January 25th, 2010
Isn’t the fruit you tasted where Lucuma powder comes from? How come you didn’t like them??
We don’t get weird fruit here but maybe dragon fruit and kumquat count? And I love figs but the grow plenty here so its not really weird either!
11:56 pm on January 25th, 2010
Why would you call these weird? They’re just different. I don’t consider any fruit “weird” – some are just not familiar to us North Americans who’ve been reared to think apple-banana-orange is all that’s “normal.”
As for me:
durian (it’s not a fruit; it’s medicine!)
sapote
passion fruit
jackfruit
star fruit
cherimoya
loquat (grow em)
guava
custard apple
rambutan
jujube
longan
kumquat
lychee
tamarind …
12:25 am on January 26th, 2010
i havent tried many but i LOVE the cherimoya. and the lilikoi (passionfruit). they are amazing! so tart and perfect.
i have never had a ROLLENIA, but my partner LOVES them and searched all over Maui when we were there and did not find one on the whole island. he had them on the Big Island. if you know of a place that grows them let me know!
12:26 am on January 26th, 2010
p.s. lychees are common at the asian market here in oregon. love em too!
12:34 am on January 26th, 2010
pps oh ive also had abiu, i found it too sticky and not sure if i loved it…and the surinam cherry and that i did NOT like.
12:35 am on January 26th, 2010
OMG! Loved the show but didn’t expect the reaction from my dog – as soon as you guys were showing the bird and she heard it talking she went completely berserk! She started running around and barking – hilarious!
I’m glad to see you guys are having a fabulous time in Key West with the crazy tropical fruit and the beautiful sun – wishing I was there too.
5:02 am on January 26th, 2010
I live on a small farm in Kona, Hawaii, and we have a lot of exotic fruit trees growing. In addition to eggfruit and black sapote, we have:
white sapote, sweet custard-like fruit
sapodilla, tastes like brown sugar
guavas – great flavor, but full of hard seeds
lilikoi (also called passionfruit, one of my favorites, sweet and tart)
Haden mangoes, really big and wonderful
Strawberry papaya
White pineapple, which are sweeter and less acidic than yellow ones
Bilimbi, which look like cucumbers but are sour, and taste like lemonade when juiced
Soursop, which are amazing, the flavor is kind of a combination of pineapple and coconut
Jackfruit, which is tough like latex but with a wonderful flavor, I chew the fruit like gum and then spit it out
Jaboticaba, which are like black grapes, but with a tougher skin
A variety of citrus, including the sweetest tangerines ever, Clementines
Cacao, which is a fruit. When the pods are fresh, the thin white material on the seeds can be eaten, and it is absolutely delicious, but does not taste anything like chocolate (which is made from the cacao seeds).
Hawaii is such a wonderful place, as so many things can grow here.
Nice to hear you are hanging out in Florida, hopefully getting your vitamin D levels up.
When are you coming to Hawaii?
Michael T.
7:41 am on January 26th, 2010
I spent last year in Homestead, FL (gateway to the Keys and you have to pass through on your way out of Key West, there’s only one route in and out you know!) so make sure you stop at “Robert was Here” – great produce stand, some organics but tons of local produce, every week I’d stop by and chat with Robert (he loves to talk!) and try a new fruit, I remember not being too fond of those Black Sapotes and their “mushiness” even though he bragged on the “chocolate” flavor. Tons of coconuts too! Oh, get a souvenir coconut birdhouse too! And a huge bunch of fresh herbs! I’m sure you’ve already discovered but I-95 and South FL driving is horrible, I was in a motorhome too! Take the turnpike when you can, though it’s not a whole lot better. Oh yes, Hollywood is about an hour up the road from Homestead on the coast and every Sun on the beach is “Josh’s Organic Farmer’s Market.” Hollywood is a nice beach and a “50’s-60’s” style downtown “resort.” There’s also a “Wild Oats” just 17 miles from Homestead on 101(good to know coming out of the Keys) and I’d vote for the Gulf side of the state for the route home, especially if you get to Ft.Myers Beach and the islands off that way – Captiva and Sannibal. Now I’m missing FL even though I was happy to leave. And doesn’t everyone have to see Disney at least once?
8:23 am on January 26th, 2010
Thank you for showing the bird! I needed a good laugh this morning and that crazy bird did it for me.
Although subtle, Kevin, your face looks aghast that you consumed agave and chocolate in the raw desserts.
8:33 am on January 26th, 2010
Hi Kevin, as a high raw foodist I was expecting a little less of prejudice from you before trying something new, but, it’s OK. I grew up in La Huasteca Potosina in Mexico and I can tell, the tropical climate there gives you blissfully taste fruits, among them the starfruit, lichee, anona, chicozapote, mamey, black zapote, chirimoya, capulin, etc. I have four birds, they really make my day, I really think they are part of the reason of my being so healthy, but they are a lot of work too. Loved the show.
9:43 am on January 26th, 2010
I too am curious if you have visited the Hippocrates Institute and your thoughts on their program…the most exotic fruit I have tried is papaya and it smelled like dog poo…didn’t like the taste much either. I stay with the more common fruits such as berries, citrus, bananas, apples, pears, peaches, etc. They seem safer LOL!!!
10:03 am on January 26th, 2010
I gotta tell you I LOVE your shows , I gotta watch, even if its a topic I’m not interested in. you two +Johnny five, do it so well. Not to menion I have learned so much about better nutrition. Now if I could loose some weight I would be better and healthier. Little scared of diabeaties run’s rampet in the family
11:35 am on January 26th, 2010
I once hallucinated from eating too much Jaca (jack fruit in Brazil) in the middle of the day. More than the fruit itself being interesting, I found it remarkable that in Brazil (at least in the north) their are certain knowns about particular fruits. Like you don’t eat banana in the middle of the day- or jaca- Oranges are ok anytime… a whole list of weird things you’re born knowing about when to eat what fruit there….
11:35 am on January 26th, 2010
durian is the weirdest fruit i’ve ever tried hands down. not only does it look very special, like a contemporary art wood sculpture, but it doesn’t even taste like a fruit… more like custard.
and the really weird smell and blubber-shaped quarters. wow. that’s a hell of a fruit.
11:36 am on January 26th, 2010
well, maybe these are built in protections again overdosing on the fruit sugars, or folks are just more intuitive about when their bodies can best digest the sugars….
12:56 pm on January 26th, 2010
I have spent much of my life in different tropical regions of the planet and LOVE all the amazing fruits there…far too many to mention but mangosteen is very near the top of the list for me.
I was very sad to see that gorgeous bird caged. They should be free to live in their natural environment. I don’t believe it is funny or cute at all to see them caged. And I don’t believe that we have the right to put their life in a cage. Makes my heart very sad.
1:29 pm on January 26th, 2010
Thank you for this episode, Kevin and Ann, and thank you to all who posted comments. I have made a list and I hope to try all of these fruits at some point.
I would also like to try ‘Buddha’s hand’. I saw it at Whole Foods a couple weeks ago. It is a yellow, citrus fruit that looks like a human hand! (sorta)
Wow! I’m feeling very blessed with all the variety of foods this planet offers.
2:54 pm on January 26th, 2010
“Although subtle, Kevin, your face looks aghast that you consumed agave and chocolate in the raw desserts.” Leam, I sensed that same subtle feeling from Kev when I heard the ingredients in the raw desserts!
3:15 pm on January 26th, 2010
I would have to say Durian……It is sooooo good would of never believed it.
2:46 am on January 27th, 2010
Durian, guava, lychee, starfruit, loquat, longan, rambutan – for me durain is the most unusual of them all, but sooo delicious, now I’ve got to go have some…
11:28 am on January 27th, 2010
You should check out Glaser Organic Farms in Miami- especially their Organic Farmers Market on Saturdays. I live on the west coast of FL Just north of Naples (Bonita Springs) if you are coming this way & need a place to stay in your motorhome.
1:03 pm on January 27th, 2010
Personally I love persimmons although I realize they are not too unusual. We don’t grow them in Canada though, so buying a case of them and waiting for them to ripen is a real treat. Also enjoy dragon fruit when it is available, lychees, tamarind.
LOVED the bird!
9:28 pm on January 27th, 2010
I picked up some canistel from Truly Tropical, here in Delray Beach, FL, this past weekend and it was delish! Also, I’ve had some creamy, dreamy black sapote that tasted a little bit like chocolate.
By the way, does anyone know about the medicinal properties of canistel?
9:28 pm on January 27th, 2010
I had quince in Honduras…. yuk!
9:36 pm on January 27th, 2010
Jaca is in the top 10 of my favorite fruits from Brazil. Jaboticaba is another. The skin of the Jaboticaba is a little tough, so many people don’t like it, but it has more antioxidants than blueberries.
11:33 pm on January 28th, 2010
Persimmon by far is the most disgusting fruit I’ve ever eaten…I got a little sick feeling looking at those fruits on the show lol, especially that black one. I’d have to try them though just for the sake of having something new
8:52 pm on January 30th, 2010
Great show! Are you stopping in Naples?
6:25 am on February 3rd, 2010
Durian popsicles are Mateo (6yr’s old) favorite, but we also liked pure Custard Apples from Australia. Mateo loves your theme music! And my mom sent us the link to this show just for him so he could see the Silly Bird! ThanX again for a great show!
2:48 am on February 5th, 2010
Well, I don’t know if I would class them as weird as they are quite normal to us Raw Fooders in these parts of Australia, but I guess mainstream people would consider them weird.
I have had the Black Sapote (Chocolate Pudding Fruit) that you had there, Durian, Star Apples, Custard Apples, Jackfruit, Lychees, Dragonfruit, Mamey Sapote, Jaboticaba, etc.
My favourite would be Durian…Yummo! My wife is going to Thailand to hang out with the Boutenko family in April and is really looking forward to the Durian over there! I am jealous!
We are really lucky to have a farm and fruit themed park called Tropical Fruit World near here. It is awesome!
You can check it out here: http://www.tropicalfruitworld.com.au