If you thought bananas, kiwis and mango were exotic fruits, then think again! Nature was very generous and imaginative when creating some small interesting (allegedly delicious) wonders and those who benefit them are considered lucky, as not many of these fruits are common to the western markets. So let’s take a look to some of the ten most amazing and weird fruits that for some are a common treat, while for others… well… they are just a dream waiting to come true.
1. Duku
No, not the Count from Star Wars, but a South – Eastern Asian fruit that can’t be exported because it loses it’s freshness the next day after it was picked. They say its taste is a combination of grapefruit and raisins, while the seeds are very bitter. It is used as a desert but also as a medicinal treatment for several types of illnesses.
2. The Star Fruit
This exotic exquisite looking miracle is becoming more and more popular in the US. It’s a tropical fruit that gained its name but the shape its slices have when cut. It’s refreshing and it is said it tastes as a strange combination of plums, pineapple and lemons.
3. Buddha’s Hand
Also called the Fingered Citron, this fruit is among the favorite of exotic chefs all over the world. It is used in making sweets, all sorts of marmalade or ice cream syrup. Some chefs even dare use an infusion of this fruit to prepare some very exotic cocktails.
4. Jaboticaba
Brazil is a place where amazing fruits grow naturally and are seen as a common desert, while we look at them in awe, wishing to taste them. Jaboticaba looks like forest fruits but grow on a tree, directly on branches. They can be consumed fresh or prepared in all sort of sweet products such as jelly, syrups or marmalade.
5. Cassabanana
Cassabanana is a fruit that only grows in South America. The tree grows very fast and the fruits are large too. While green, they can be used as a vegetable, while reaching the ripe red color, they become a fruit so weird and sweet, it looks like an orange and tastes like a banana.
6. Akebi
This is a Japanese fruit that can only be picked in certain time frames, being associated with the passing of seasons. It can’t be eaten until fully ripe and its content, in a form of a paste, is slightly sweet and sticky.
7. Pitaya
Also known as the Dragon Fruit, Pitaya is a strange one because of its outside color and the remarkable resemblance to a kiwi on the inside, because of its black small seeds. It is actually a cactus fruit, tasting slightly sower and refreshing, and it is consumed fresh.
8. Ackee
This typical Jamaican fruit is a local dish and it is consumed by the population in various forms. Still, you have to know that only the yellow rich interior of this fruit can be eaten, as the red outside wrapping is actually very poisonous.
9. Snake Skin Fruit
Well, it doesn’t taste like a snake, if ever one thought about that, but it has an interesting feature nonetheless. If you pinch a little its skin, pretty much like in the case of garlic, the fruit will come out, looking exactly like garlic, but tasting sweet and slightly acid.
10. Akebia Quinata
These fruits, people say, look like they are ready to jump at you any time and probably take a bite out of you. But actually they are harmless, in spite the fact that they look like a huge sausage filled with beans. Its interior is similar to a paste, sticky and sweet, and their leaves smell like chocolate. New Zealand doesn’t export this strange fruit because of a nasty parasite, but still enjoys its looks and its taste.
