You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

Also known as African horned cucumber, horned melon, spiked melon or jelly melon among other monikers, kiwano has spiked orange skin with lime green flesh that looks like jelly and tastes, some say, like a mix of banana and passionfruit or banana, cucumber and lime.

[Lee Stewart]

Feijoa is a South American fruit that’s also grown commercially in California and New Zealand. Its green peel is inedible, but the juicy fruit on the inside is white in color and similar to guava in texture, which is why it’s also sometimes called pineapple guava or guavasteen. Feijoa has a distinctive, perfume-like smell and a flavor that some have compared to a combination of apple, pineapple and mint.

[Lee Stewart]

Due to the reddish-brown, scaly appearance of its peel, salak is also known as snake fruit. When peeled, it reveals three white lobes of fruit that look and feel like garlic cloves but taste sweet and acidic.

[Lee Stewart]

Miracle fruit gets its name from the fact that it contains the miraculin glycoprotein which, when eaten, causes any sour foods — such as lemons, pickles or radishes — eaten right after it to taste sweet. The fruit goes by many names such as miracle berry and sweet berry, as well as, in its native West Africa, agbayun, asaa, ledidi and taami. The red berries themselves have a mild flavor that’s both sweet and tangy.

[Lee Stewart]

Sapodilla is actually a large berry that ranges in color from a pale yellow to a light, earthy brown and has a grainy texture to its skin, similar to kiwi, with anywhere from one to six hard, black seeds on the inside. Also called chikoo, naseberry, níspero and sapota among other names, sapodilla has a sweet and malty flavor like that of caramelized pear.

[Lee Stewart]

Grown primarily in Southeast Asia and southwest India, as well as Colombia, Florida and Puerto Rico, mangosteen has a sweet and tangy taste with a white fleshy and fibrous center inside an inedible, dark red or purple exterior.

[Lee Stewart]

A citrus fruit also native to South and Southeast Asia, pomelo is also grown in the U.S. and the Caribbean. While its peel is typically a pale green or yellow when ripe, the inside fruit is white, pale yellow, pink or red in color and tastes like a sweet, milder grapefruit.

[Lee Stewart]

Brazil’s national fruit is related to cacao, with an interesting smell that some of described as a mix of both chocolate and pineapple. Concealed inside a hard, brown exterior, cupuaçu’s white pulp tastes like a mix of banana, passion fruit, pear and melon.

[Lee Stewart]

Buddha’s hand, or fingered citron, gets its name from the finger-like sections of the fruit, which is green to yellow in color and, unlike other citrus fruits, typically does not have any pulp or juice. Originating in the Himalayan region and eaten throughout East and Southeast Asia, Buddha’s hand has a taste like that of a nonbitter lemon peel and a strong lemon blossom fragrance that makes it popular for zesting and flavoring.

[Lee Stewart]

The bulky, spiked appearance of durian has earned it the title “king of fruits,” and its potent, unpleasant stench has earned it quite the reputation as well.