286763 Tue Dec 05 15:32:09 -0800 2000 25 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1539082 I subscribe to a newsletter out of San Diego about fresh produce. I use it mainly for reference. I read about this dragon fruit today and wonder if anyone has actually eaten one. It called pitaya in Mexico and also strawberry pear. It's as big as a grapefruit with pulp that maybe eaten with a spoon or made into juice. Sounds delicious! pat Tue Dec 05 15:32:09 -0800 2000 0 pat hammond 1 1539095 Yes - I've had the dragon fruit in Vietnam - along with the much-maligned durian (which because if its smell, is banned in a lot of places). The dragon fruit is very striking looking -- looks great on a fruit display, but in my humble opinion, the flavour is too subtle to warrant eating it on its own. It is nice in a fruit salad. Wed Dec 06 04:45:49 -0800 2000 1539082 0 magnolia 1 1539097 From your description, it sounds like a Cherimoya (sp?) which is indeed a delicious fruit. BTW is there a Latin name for dragon fruit? Wed Dec 06 07:09:32 -0800 2000 1539082 0 christina z 2 1539103 I think cherimoya is commonly known as a 'custard apple' The dragon fruit has its own home page! See below... Link: http://www.nt.gov.au/dpif/pubcat/agnotes/778.htm Wed Dec 06 09:34:03 -0800 2000 1539097 0 magnolia 3 1539104 Thanks very much. Isn't it the most amazing looking fruit? I'd never seen a picture of the actual plant before. It looks very much like my Christmas cactus! This produce website I mentioned says they are becoming sought after in this country. Perhaps someone out there will see one, buy it, and report back. Thanks again, one and all. pat Wed Dec 06 09:45:22 -0800 2000 1539103 0 pat hammond 4 1539105 If anyone can get it for you, mailorder, they can...or maybe they can point you in the right direction. Or a good Asian market? Wed Dec 06 10:21:47 -0800 2000 1539104 0 magnolia 5 1539117 I bought a dragon fruit from a Vietnamese market in the DC suburbs about 2 months ago. It looked just like the picture on the dragon fruit web page. The woman at the store was not able to tell me anything about it. I am a big tropical fruit lover, so I was excited, but perhaps this specimen was not ripe, because the flavor and smell were . . . not much. Lots of seeds, not much flesh, and the taste not worth the trouble of all the seeds. But judging from the web site, this is not typical. Wed Dec 06 12:21:05 -0800 2000 1539105 0 Sirina 6 1539119 yep that's it...not much flavour even when ripe, just sort of funky to look at and take apart. Wed Dec 06 12:52:39 -0800 2000 1539117 0 magnolia 7 1539120 They serve dragon fruit at the breakfast buffet in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong and they called it "Vietnamese Dragon Fruit". It was gorgeous to look at; a bright red rind and creamy white flesh and black seeds, but it was disappointing to eat - not really much there. The mangosteins, on the other hand, were to die for. They don't serve durian in any of the South East Asian hotels we stayed in. Except at Raffles in Singapore where there was a durian cake at at the lunch buffet. I took a piece and everybody at the table complained about the terrible stench. Wed Dec 06 13:43:49 -0800 2000 1539119 0 Joan Winston 8 1539136 In Central America, especially Nicaragua, refrescos made from pitahaya juice are pretty common--though as noted, the vivid pepto-pink color is vastly more dramatic than the mildly acid taste. Thu Dec 07 12:46:36 -0800 2000 1539120 0 Pepper 9 1539145 i had a dragon fruit once in france; the grocery store was having a big tropical fruit promotion. this was about five years ago and i have thought about and longed for that fruit ever since. france must have completely different fruit import law than the u.s.; it was the creamiest, most subtle, most lush fruit i've ever eaten. maybe it's a distorted food memory, more connected with my life circumstances at the time than to the fruit itself. reading all these somewhat negative posts is causing me to doubt slightly my memory of this fruit. Thu Dec 07 16:49:55 -0800 2000 1539136 0 emily 10 1540930 Keep the faith, Emily. When I was last in Paris, we stayed at the Hotel Madeleine Plaza, which is a completely ordinary, pleasant little hotel which happens to be located directly between Hédiard and Fauchon. On the first morning we were there, I went out in the AM and picked up a selection of brioches from Fauchon and two different kinds of Pithayas from Hédiard. They were delicious, lush, subtle, juicy, delicately sweet with a hint of exotic tropical fruit flavors. A little like a kiwi but with better texture and a subtle acidity rather than the sharpness we have all come to associate with the brown and fuzzy fruit. They were QUITE expensive, though! Thu Apr 12 00:08:23 -0700 2001 1539145 0 Roger Lee 5 1539130 Nope. Sitting right next to the catalog and no such animal in there. But I'm fairly sure I saw one in Chinatown here in Chicago. I'll report back on this one next week, after my monthly sojurn. Thu Dec 07 03:23:28 -0800 2000 1539105 0 bryan 5 1539132 Frieda's in California was a leader years ago in importing unusual fruits and vegatables, many of which are common today. I used to order gift baskets from them. They probably have a website. Thu Dec 07 08:53:16 -0800 2000 1539105 0 rjka 3 1539109 the elusive custard apple! i've been looking for this fruit for years. i love it! i was beginning to think it was a mangosteen, based on some talk on the california boards. i'm so glad to have finally found it! thank you! Wed Dec 06 10:35:54 -0800 2000 1539103 0 emily 3 1540739 Hi, I'm trying to locate a source within Australia of hylocereus undatus, ie., the one developed by the Vietnamese gov. which is self pollinating, is more oval than round, is a deep redy pink, has a delicious sweet flesh & can weigh 600g or more when well grown. If you can help, please email me as would love to buy some plants. Thanks Tue Feb 20 21:00:29 -0800 2001 1539103 0 John Picone 4 1540741 John - my post that you replied to has a link to the Australian government dept in charge of horticulture. Maybe they can help you? Click on the 'in reply to' link and it will get you back to the message with the link. Good luck! Wed Feb 21 05:49:32 -0800 2001 1540739 0 magnolia 5 1540926 The dragon fruit is grown at Innisfail in North Queesland and marketed in Brisbane Qld. from a firm called exotico and their web site is www.exotico.com.au Hope that is of help to all. Sat Apr 07 21:06:25 -0700 2001 1540741 0 susan 3 1540920 J'aimerai avoir des informations sur hylocereus undatus au niveau de sa propagation in vitro(sujet de mémoire). Merci infiniment Aurélie derckel Mon Mar 19 14:56:17 -0800 2001 1539103 0 derckel 2 1539112 dragon fruit is very similar to cherimoya, but not quite. in spanish, it's Pitahaya Wed Dec 06 11:06:08 -0800 2000 1539097 0 Jim Leff 1 1539106 Would you be willing to share the name of the newsletter? I would love to try some. Wed Dec 06 10:22:25 -0800 2000 1539082 0 Kate 2 1539107 Sure. Specialtyproduce.com Wed Dec 06 10:28:36 -0800 2000 1539106 0 pat hammond 1 1539108 This is info. is possibly out of date, but when I was at Ideya (West Broadway between Broome & Grand Sts, NYC) about six or seven months ago, they used cherimoya in their fruit salad. It is pretty subtle as Magnolia pointed out, although very pleasant. I could see it making a great fruit shake. Perhaps a call to Ideya would get info. on a distributor? Wed Dec 06 10:28:45 -0800 2000 1539082 0 Lauren 1 1540924 Yes we ( myself and my family ) have eaten the dragon fruit. It is one of our favorite fruits with only bananas before it. It is a great taste it's sweet with only a small hint of sour. Snapple actually make a drink with it now it is called Fire. It is a energy/vitamin drink. It too is very good I recomend both. Fri Mar 23 22:02:11 -0800 2001 1539082 0 WILLIAM KITCHEN 1 1540929 There are actually many varieties of the Pitaya (Pitahaya) fruit. I've actually eaten about 5 of them, and they are the best fruit I've ever tasted Wed Apr 11 20:55:56 -0700 2001 1539082 0 Murib 2 1540949 I just came back from Viet Nam and had dragon fruit .The name in Vietnamese is Qua Thanh Long . Has anyone found it in the U.S. ? Wed Aug 29 20:54:07 -0700 2001 1540929 0 david geliebter