Taste Test: Dragon fruit

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What a beautiful specimen this thing called the dragon fruit is! Its skin looks like the feathers of an exotic bird or the petals of a tropical flower. Cut it in half and you get the most simple black-and-white interior imaginable. It's so… interesting. I have to admit that I didn't know anything about it until I got a serving of crappy fruit salad on my Hong Kong-Tokyo flight earlier this week. Maybe it was just the airplane food thing, but I found it to be pretty plain-tasting.

Many of us associate dragon fruit with Southeast Asia because of its prevalence in the region and the use of dragon fruit in some Thai recipes, but it actually has its origins in South America. The fruit is mostly made of water and makes for a great low-calorie snack; it's also a great source of fiber and vitamin C.

I have yet to experiment with dragon fruit in my own kitchen, but my instincts tell me it would be great in a martini glass. Try mixing the mashed-up pulp of a dragon fruit with a spoonful of sugar and some vodka in a cocktail shaker and let me know how it tastes!

By the way, Febreze announced yesterday that they've just added the fragrance Thai Dragon Fruit to their lineup. I'm assuming that it's made based on the smell of the white dragon fruit flower, not the actual fruit part.

Every installment of Taste Test will explore recipes, the science, and some history behind a specific food item.

Image via John Loo's Flickr