Text 8529, 96 rader
Skriven 2008-06-08 15:28:34 av DAVE SACERDOTE (1:123/140)
Ärende: Tastes 2
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Horned Melon: The Triple Dog Dare Challenge!

A blogger named Toontz, in her blog Okara Mountain, 
(http://okaramountain.blogspot.com) recently wrote about her 
tendency to breeze on past certain items when she's grocery 
shopping:

    "I lamented to my husband that there are so many items in the 
    grocery store that I just pass by, without even giving them a 
    second thought, just because I have never eaten them before. 
    Or had a bad experience with growing up. My mother, when she 
    fried eggplant, would laugh at me because the smell would 
    literally run me out of the house. I hate brussels sprouts, 
    though my sister raves about them. My little darlings have 
    never eaten a turnip, just because I have never picked one 
    up at the grocery."

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I think all of us do that to some 
degree. But toontz decided she wants to start pushing out of her 
comfort zone, and she's invited fellow bloggers along for the ride. 
Welcome to the Triple Dog Dare Challenge, a monthly event in which
participants try out something new and different in a defined food 
category - it need not be exotic, rare, or expensive, only 
something one has never tried before. This month's category 
is Fruit.

This one was something of a stumper for me because I actively 
seek out strange and unusual foods. I'm familiar with most of 
the items on internet-based "strange fruit" lists, and most of 
the supermarkets in my area don't have a very large selection 
of exotic produce from which to choose.

How fortunate, then, for me to find horned melons at one of the 
local markets. Also known as kiwanos, melanos, jelly melons, 
hedged gourds, and "English tomatoes" (really?) horned melons 
are a bright yellowy-orange when ripe and covered with sharp 
spikes like a miniature durian.

There's a photo on my blog of a horned melon in all its lethally 
spiked cheery orange glory. About six inches or so from end to 
end, relatively heavy for its size, and covered with leathery 
skin studded with sharp spines, it looks more like a dog's chew 
toy than a fruit. (Zim thought so, too, whining and begging 
for it until I let him take a sniff of it and he bumped his nose 
on one of the spines.) I inspected the melon carefully, looking 
for a way in, but there were no obvious entry points, seams, or 
bits that looked peelable, so it was off to the cutting board.

I cut a long wedge from the melon, end to end. Holy crap, it's 
green inside!! And filled with seeds that look remarkably like 
those from a cucumber. Except that cucumber seeds aren't 
individually surrounded by ectoplasmic blobs, which is what 
seemed to be the case within this alien-looking melon.

I gave the wedge a tentative squeeze and the little seed blobs 
popped out from pore-like pockets along the skin of the fruit. 
It looked, quite frankly, disgusting. But what the hell - I've 
put worse-looking things in my mouth, so I sucked up a mouthful 
of the blobs and kind of rolled them around my tongue.

I wasn't sure I could eat the seeds or not, so I kind of pushed 
the seeds out through my teeth while retaining the blobby fruit 
part in my mouth. I spit the seeds out and chewed away at the 
pulp. It's rather resistant to tooth damage, but chewing does 
release some juice and flavor, and I guess the point is to 
extract as much of the flavor of the melon as possible before 
finally swallowing the pulp and going for another mouthful of 
ectoplasm.

I can't say the flavor was anything very exciting. It was sort 
of cucumbersome, with a tart green kiwifruit overtone, but I also 
noted a rather subtle and unpleasant fishiness. This, combined 
with the slimy frog's-egg texture, made for an experience which 
I don't regret but won't repeat.

For every cloud there is a silver lining, however, and in this 
case the silver lining is Sid, our Amazon parrot. He thoroughly 
enjoyed a slice of horned melon, carefully removing each gooey 
seed pod and eating first the seed (his favorite part) and then 
the bright green pulp. When he had completely removed all of the 
seeds, he proceeded to eat all of the pulpy membrane inside the 
skin, then flipped the skin over and ate all of the spines from 
the exterior. By the time he was done, there was naught but a 
thin rubbery layer of bright orange exterior skin with lots of 
beakmarks along the edges. I may never buy another horned melon 
for myself, but I might pick one up for an occasional treat for Sid.


---
http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/ - Dave's Cupboard - Food and 
Restaurant Reviews; If I post it here in NCE, you'll find it 
blogged with photos at Dave's Cupboard.

http://bacon-labels.blogspot.com/ - A gallery of bacon package labels.
(The extra shelf in Dave's Cupboard.
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)