weird fruit

Closely linked and sometimes mistaken for the rambutan, pulasan is part of the Sapindaceae family. Its white fruit is extremely sweet with a big woody seed in the middle.

The kaffir lime is distinguished by its rough, bumpy green skin, and is commonly served as a pickled fruit. Kaffir lime leaves are used in curries and also in Thai food like tom yam soup.

Also known as custard apple, sweetsop or atis, this fruit comes from the Annona squamosa tree. It is round with a slight pine cone diameter.

The kumquat is a citrus fruit that resembles the orange, but is smaller and ovalshaped like an olive. Cultivated in China, Japan and Taiwan, it is commonly used in making marmalade, jelly and preserves.

This strawberry native to China is also known as the bayberry or by its scientific name Myrica rubra. Its fruit can be eaten fresh, dried or fermented to makebaijiu, a Chinese liquor.

This brilliantly purple fruit thrives in northern Japan, in the Tohoku area, but only briefly, making an appearance for about two weeks in early autumn. It grows on a wild vine and, for many Japanese people, is a symbol of the changing seasons. When the fruit is ripe and ready to eat, it pops open on one end. The gooey pulp inside is slightly sweet, while the rind is slightly bitter and is usually used as a vegetable. Do as locals do, and slurp up the flesh along with the seeds.

Native to southeastern Brazil, this strange bowling ball esque fruit grows right off the main tree trunk. The deeppurple fruits have a white pulp inside that can be eaten raw or used in jellies. Jaboticaba was very fun to eat, recalls Tyler Burton, who lived in Brazil for two years. You gently bite into them and the juice squirts out into your mouth, and you spit the seed and skin out.

Whats green and scaly all over? Cherimoya fruit, although the inside is white and creamy, with many dark brown seeds. Its currently grown throughout South and Central America and South Asia (the name originally comes from the Quechua word chirimuya). Mark Twain called it the most delicious fruit known to men, and generations later, that reputation is holding up. Dan Clarke, who works for Real Peru Holidays, a company that specializes in vacations to Peru, says, The usual English translation for it is custard apple, which sounds tasty enough, but doesnt come close to capturing the creamy sweetness.

Found in the tropical rainforests of Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and northern Brazil, these Amazonian fruits are oblong and fuzzy. Their outer shells are very hard and thick, and one fruit generally weighs two to four pounds. The pulp inside smells like a mix of chocolate and pineapple only logical once you know this fruit is related to cacao. In fact, its pulp is similar enough to cocoa butter that its sometimes used in cosmetics. Meanwhile, the juice has been said to taste like a pear, with a hint of banana. Like the superfruit acai, cupua?u has so many great phytochemicals and nutrients that it is sometimes used in food supplements.

Also known as Buddhas hand, this fruit has long yellow growths that really do resemble fingers. Its used, appropriately enough, for religious offerings in Buddhist temples, mainly in China and Japan. Fingered citron is also a chefs favorite. At Portlands Pazzo Ristorante, chef John Eisenhart makes marmalade from it in the winter. Pastry chef Megan Romano of Chocolate & Spice Bakery, in Las Vegas, slices it paperthin and poaches it in simple syrup to use as a chip to garnish ice cream or sorbet. And Vera Dordick, a trained pastry chef and former culinary instructor, particularly likes infusing the fruit in vodka: so much more fragrant and flavorful than regular lemons, she says.