More Fruit Choices In Playero

[Ken]

I wash them first,no need to peel,I cut them in half and scoop out the flesh.
I do not eat the skin.

Ate my first kaki fruit tonight. Small, but very tasty. You get about 2 teaspoons of fruit out of each one.

Only thing is that the fruit sold in Playero is very hard. It takes awhile for them to ripen and become soft. I left them in the bag, tied the top shut, and put them in the back room. There were 6 in the package that I bought August 29. At 3 tonight, the other 3 still in the bag ripening.

I suppose the longer they sit in the store waiting to be purchased the less time it will take for them to ripen when you get them home.

I will buy them again. They are quite good. I enjoy having the opportunity to try fruits that I am not familiar with. When I lived in Samana, i worked for Hotel Gran Bahia. One of my jobs was to supervise the nature trail we made in the mountain at the back of the property. There were a lot of different fruits growing on the mountain so I had a variety of fruits in their season that normally are not sold in stores. I miss that.

 

[Ken]

it will be slightly soft to the touch, like mango. the flesh is watery and is best cold.

Thanks, dv8. Were you serious about eating the seeds?

 

[Chirimoya]

It works well for making juice: try blending the pulp and straining it, adding sugar or sweetener to taste (optional). I first tried pitahaya in Central America where it is very popular.

 

[dv8]

pithaya is very popular in colombia, it comes in pink and yellow. the seeds do indeed give a metabolism boost, apparently one should not crush them with teeth. poo is soon to follow
hence what chiri said: to juice you blend and then sieve.

 

[Ken]

pithaya is very popular in colombia, it comes in pink and yellow. the seeds do indeed give a metabolism boost, apparently one should not crush them with teeth. poo is soon to follow
hence what chiri said: to juice you blend and then sieve.

Thanks dv8.

Google has a lot of information on eating pithaya with the seeds. A Wiki article says they should be chewed:

"To prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh. The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit because of its black, crunchy seeds. The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids, but they are indigestible unless chewed."

Vamos a ver.

 

[dv8]

i think "digestion" may be the key
i was told about seeds by a colombian friend years ago. in any case, chewing pithaya is rather difficult because like most fruits is it fairly soft and it goes down quickly
and the taste is good!

check out this site for more tropical fruits. you can buy seeds of nearly everything. only in america
Rare Fruit Seeds and Exotic Tropical Fruit Seeds

some fruit descriptions too:
FRUIT TREE DESCRIPTIONS

 

[Ken]

Karambola (aka Carambola or Star Fruit)

This fruit now offered by Playero looks interesting.

Tomorrow I am going to get a package. They had some that were yellow, meaning ripe.

Carambola - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also found this in another article:

"Food Preparation
Carambolas can be sliced up into attractive starshapes, which can then be added as a garnish to fruit salad and fish. It is also a good fruit for juicing.You do not need to peel the fruit, but you should trim each rib and remove the darker green edge which is very bitter."

 

[davetuna]

you never eaten star fruit? man is is lovely, used in the uk for 20 years at least. lovely in a fruit salad or as a garnish for a fish dish or something a little tarty.

cheap here as well
I havent seen guanabana in playero but i know they sell them in the huts alongside the roads, lovely in a smoothie

 

[mike l]

Keep forgetting paper pencil, but here is one I remember from today's visit to Playero: Red Pitahaya. Weird looking fruit.

Pitaya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I see from wiki they are edible. Do you peel them or cut them open and scoop out the fruit? What about what look like black seeds? Do you eat them, too. Seem to be a lot of them.

If you like fresh mushrooms, Playero has big ones in the produce section.
.

That pic is a fruit from a cactus but playero only sells the blanco or white ones but they also come in red and they are more tasty.

They are seasonal and don't last long.

Worth a try for a newbie however...cut in half and use a spoon

 

[Ken]

That pic is a fruit from a cactus but playero only sells the blanco or white ones but they also come in red and they are more tasty.

They are seasonal and don't last long.

Worth a try for a newbie however...cut in half and use a spoon

How long has it been since you have been to playero? They sell red ones that look just like the ones in the picture. They are on the top shelf in the fruit section. You can't miss them because of the red color.

 

[sayanora]

How long has it been since you have been to playero? They sell red ones that look just like the ones in the picture. They are on the top shelf in the fruit section. You can't miss them because of the red color.

Pretty sure he's referring to the ones with deep red/purple flesh instead of white.. Gotta admit these are delicious though

The other variety is extremely hard to findand I've only seen in it Asia, South America, and in Whole Foods in California.. (lol) It also turns your poo purple, was scary the first time and I couldn't figure it out so I looked it up online.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

The other variety is extremely hard to findand I've only seen in it Asia, South America, and in Whole Foods in California.. (lol) It also turns your poo purple, was scary the first time and I couldn't figure it out so I looked it up online.

I have bought the kind with the deep red/pink inside at Playero....not this year....but they have had them in the past, so I assume that variety is also grown in the DR.

Lindsey

 

[Ken]

Pretty sure he's referring to the ones with deep red/purple flesh instead of white.. Gotta admit these are delicious though

Good point, you may be right. I'm going to buy one today and as soon as it ripens, I'll find out.

Yes, re poo color. I read in some articles that both your urine and poo can be red if you eat a lot of the fruit.

 

[bronzeallspice]

I have bought the kind with the deep red/pink inside at Playero....not this year....but they have had them in the past, so I assume that variety is also grown in the DR.

Lindsey

Do not mention Playero to Sayanora!:cheeky:

 

[william webster]

Good point, you may be right. I'm going to buy one today and as soon as it ripens, I'll find out.

Yes, re poo color. I read in some articles that both your urine and poo can be red if you eat a lot of the fruit.

Or beets.....

 

[sayanora]

Do not mention Playero to Sayanora!:cheeky:

Haha no need to buy these at playero, there's a truck in gaspar hernandez that sells them for 10 PESOS EACH HAHAHAHAH

 

[bronzeallspice]

Haha no need to buy these at playero, there's a truck in gaspar hernandez that sells them for 10 PESOS EACH HAHAHAHAH

I buy alot of my fruits from street vendors.They're so cheap!

 

[sayanora]

I buy alot of my fruits from street vendors.They're so cheap!

Always, also on the eastern end of gaspar hernandez, you can buy criollo almonds for like 1/4 of the supermarket prices. They are a little smaller but have pretty much the same taste.. a huge bag of them is 100 pesos.

 

[windeguy]

Always, also on the eastern end of gaspar hernandez, you can buy criollo almonds for like 1/4 of the supermarket prices. They are a little smaller but have pretty much the same taste.. a huge bag of them is 100 pesos.

That may be true but how practical is if for someone from Sosua to go the east end of Gaspar Hernandez to shop for fruits and nuts?

Using the street vendors in your locale does make a lot of sense.

 

[Ken]

Pithaya For First Time.

Had pithaya for the first time last night. Ate half the fruit and will eat other half tonight.

I had to laugh when I cut it open. Whether you chew the seeds or not makes no difference, as you realize when you cut one open. There are about a zillion seeds, black and very tiny. I muist take 50-100 of the seeds to make something the size of a grain of rice.

The fruit is the consistency of jello. You scoop it out with a spoon. To chew the seeds is like chewing jello. No doubt some of the seeds get crunched when you chew but certainly many do not.

The inside looked exactly like the picture in an earlier post.

The people at Playero tell me there are large fields of pithaya near the border with Haiti. They say it grows like a vine. You can take a cutting from a plant and put it in a pot and it will grow.