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Well we finally did it, we tried fresh dragon fruit. Honestly I am still not sure what it is exactly. There was a very interesting conversation about dragon fruit going on at the Leftover Queen Forum. I love dragons quite a lot and anything associated with dragons I want to like. It is that one love from childhood fantasies that I still carry with me. Anything to do with dragons excites me. It is my Chinese astrology sign, maybe that has something to do with it.

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So one day last winter Roberto and I were at Trader Joe’s in Massachusetts. This was mere weeks before making our big move to Florida, so we were getting our TJ’s fix in and decided to try things we never had before. Within minutes our sights grabbed on to a bag of purple dried dragon fruit. We were so excited to try it that as soon as we reached our car, we ripped the bag open. We each popped a piece in our mouth and immediately began making terrible faces. I was so disappointed because it was the most disgusting thing we had ever tasted. I wanted to like it so badly, but there was just nothing tasty about it. It was full of seeds and bitter and the worst part was it made our mouths look like we had been in a bar fight and likely missing teeth. It stained our mouths a deep purple and we picked seeds from our teeth for hours. I wish I had a picture of this moment to share with you all…We vowed never to eat it again….but as I always say, never say never!

One day I posted a topic on the forum about foods you wanted to like, but when you actually tried it, it was awful. I mean how many of you foodies out there have had this experience? A coveted food item that you have wanted to try for so long finally enters your mouth and it is just anti-climatic. Isn’t it kind of like a broken heart? Well now you understand this dragon fruit fiasco. So I got a lot of responses to my experience with the dried dragon fruit and according to many foodies whose opinions I respect fresh dragon fruit is amazing. So after a lot of back and forth I decided to give fresh dragon fruit a chance. Well I wasn’t sure I would get the opportunity to try it so soon. But as I have mentioned before on this blog the tropical fruit aisle that we have in Florida is a pretty amazing thing. There is always something new to try and one day, lo and behold, they had dragon fruits. So naturally, we bought one.

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We brought it home and immediately cut right into it, the suspense too much to handle. When you cut into a dragon fruit, the bright pink and green scaly skin on the outside gives way to soft tender flesh on the inside, flesh that so does not match the outer skin, it almost seems like there is something wrong about it.

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The inside is white with black flecks and the texture reminds you of a crunchy kiwi when you bite into it. I hate to say it but I was not overly amazed. The flavor was very mild and did actually put us in mind of a kiwi, which I am not generally a fan of, so maybe I should blame it on that. Or However, I can imagine it tasting wonderful on a very hot day if the fruit was nice and cold. Or maybe I didn’t taste a good specimen. But here I am making excuses for it, wanting to like it.

I feel like I gave dragon fruit a fair try. I can honestly say in its fresh form, it is not the worst thing I have ever tasted, but for me it didn’t live up to all of its “dragon-ness” nor my inflated expectations! Which has left me, needless to say, a little broken hearted.