Strange Fruit?

Here's a short pointless story with a semi-sweet ending. Another hot day, deadlines kickin' me in the head. I was out running lunch errands on Canal Street yesterday. I needed 3 yards of Belgian linen for a photo back drop and then separately, new shorts (I lost weight). After a quick lunch I passed by a fruit stand on my way back to the train.



I saw a scaley red thing that was about 6" long and 3.5" wide on a fruit stand. The sign read "Dragon Fruit / $5". I asked the vendor what it was, he pointed and said "Is dragon froooot, good fo yoo." "Do I cook it?" "5 dolla." I figured this conversation was going nowhere so I just handed him 5 bucks. According to the movies, if I had turned around to haggle, the fruit stand and the little Chinese guy would have vanished.



I got it home and Googled. I wasn't sure what to do with this thing. The fruit turns out to be from a type of epiphitic catus from central South America. It is of three varieties of color: red, yellow, and purple.



The flesh is bright white, soft and pulpy, disbursed with tiny black seeds. It had a semi-sweet flavor that tasted somewhat like an unripened guava or a paw paw. This thing would be great frozen, scooped, and served like sorbé with Nilla Wafers. I'm sure it would be sweeter if I let it ripen.