Every taste is an opportunity to be left speechless and wide-eyed. There are weird fruits out there that taste like chicken (seriously), as well as ice cream, scrambled eggs, and other breakfast foods.
Cotton Candy Grapes
The Grapple, an apple doused in grape juice, was the final grape-related novelty fruit to make a big sensation. When you phrase it like that, it’s not all that exciting. However, the Cotton Candy Grape, developed in California, is the most exciting new grape variety this year.
The breeders did not resort to genetic engineering or covertly added flavours; rather, they crossed different strains of the plant until they achieved the desired flavor—a very light, highly sweet flavour that is reminiscent of spun cotton candy.
Jackfruit
Ripe and unripe fruits can have wildly distinct tastes. Consider the unripe and green versions of the mango and the papaya, both of which are crisp and vegetal and are typically prepared as vegetables. On the other hand, the jackfruit goes even further in this regard. The jackfruit is a large, prickly fruit that originates in South and Southeast Asia and can weigh up to 80 pounds.
The unripe flesh, which emerges in pod forms, has a strange flavour and texture that is reminiscent of chicken breast. When ripe, the taste is quite different, resembling either pineapple or bubblegum in its crazily sweet, tropical flavour. It doesn’t appear like bubblegum at all, and more like a mediaeval weapon.
Durian
The renowned durian, also endemic to Southeast Asia, is a large, spiky fruit. The durian is deceiving not because it is an ugly fruit that tastes great, but because it is an ugly fruit that doesn’t taste like a fruit. In spite of its powerful, almost offensive odour, the durian’s creamy flesh has a flavour resembling a purée of garlic and onions. (It’s an acquired taste.)
Blue Java Banana
Most Americans have only ever tasted one, two, or at most three distinct varieties of bananas. The Cavendish type is technically the “normal banana.” There are also young bananas, which occasionally appear in markets, and you may even include plantains. The Blue Java banana is a strange enough type for few Americans to have heard of it due to its unusual colour.
But wait, there’s more: the Blue Java is also called a “ice cream banana” due to its uncanny similarity in flavour to vanilla ice cream.
Pineberry
As more and more chefs experiment with using green, unripe strawberries in savoury dishes and pickles, it’s important to know that strawberries appear pale when unripe. Pineberries, on the other hand, are even paler.
Their introduction to the New York area occurred in 2012, and they are little, virtually white berries. But they don’t taste like conventional strawberries: Because of their pineapple-like taste, they are called “pineapple-strawberries” in Germany.
Ackee
The ackee is a fruit in the lychee family, native to West Africa. It was brought to other parts of the world by slaves, but it became particularly popular in Jamaica, where it is now considered an essential ingredient in the national cuisine of ackee and saltfish.
The centre of the fruit is white, giving it a brain-like appearance, while the surface is a vibrant, celebratory crimson. Contrary to expectations, its flavour and texture are most like scrambled eggs, not tropical fruits.
Dragonfruit
The dragonfruit, depicted at the top of this piece, is arguably the most attractive fruit on Earth, thanks to its otherworldly hue of orange-pink and its unusual shape (an elongated oval with petal-like projections on all sides). The name means “dragon” in Chinese. Wow, that’s an awesome moniker.
If you’re already intrigued, opening it up might boost the ante: The two most prevalent colours are a stark white and a deep crimson, and both contain several tiny black seeds. The best-looking fruit in the world is also one of the blandest, but all of that is quickly dashed as you take a bite.
Dragonfruit is the sour, sweet lovechild of the kiwi and a sugar water. There is no sourness, barely any flavour, and some sweetness. It’s a bad smell.
