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Member since:20.03.2007
Reviews:83
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My mum bought this item home from Tesco today. She was attracted by the beautiful appearance of the fruit.
*~*~*The Fruit*~*~*
The fruit itself is a bright pink colour with green scales. It definitely stands out from the other edibles on the shelf. It is an oval sort of shape and about 4/5 inches tall. There are 3 types of Dragon Fruit and they all have very technical names. The Hylocereus undatus, which is what my mum bought, has pink skin and white flesh, the Hylocereus polyrhizus, which has pink skin and red flesh and the Selenicereus megalanthus, which has yellow skin and white flesh. I must stress that I haven't sampled the latter two varieties and therefore this review is solely on the Hylocereus undatus. The inside of the fruit has white flesh as stated above, this flesh is very soft (a bit like a kiwi fruit in appearance) and it littered with edible seeds.
*~*~*The History Of the Dragon Fruit*~*~*
The fruit comes from a type of cactus and may be referred to at the Strawberry Pear, Pitaberry. It is grown in South America, Mexico,
Central America and Southeast Asia. This particular version of the fruit comes from the Hylocereus Undatus, an aerial cactus that can climb up and over anything and grows up to 20 feet in length. The plant produces fragrant flowers, which bloom only at night and for one night only. The cactus grows in a warm climate and too much water will greatly reduce the chances of good fruit productions, instead it may cause the fruits of the plant to rot away.
Firstly you need to peel the pretty skin from the fruit. The skin is not edible. We were not sure how you are meant to eat the fruit so decided to cut the top off and scoop the contents from the lid to test it (to make sure we liked it.) After we did that we sliced the already peeled fruit into approximately 8 slices of about .5 of a centimeter think. You can eat the entire fruit either by scooping out the contents or by slicing it up. The fruit could also should you choose be cut into chunks as the seeds are not central to it and therefore there is no core to prevent it from being diced.
Dragon Fruit is best served chilled.
*~*~*Texture*~*~*
I find that with fruit texture is important. The skin on this fruit is of a rubbery/waxy feel and was very easy to peel off as it came off in a single effort. The flesh is soft and it can be eaten with a spoon should you wish to do so. I found the texture of the flesh off putting if I am honest. It melted in the mouth (and is described else where as having a sorbet effect). I wasn't that keen on this feeling as I like to be able to taste my food and I find that a lot of the time chewing brings out the flavours, as it does in other fruits like strawberries, apples, bananas etc.
A good thing about this fruit is that whilst it is very juicy on the taste buds, it seems to contain the water until you eat it. By that I mean that there was no excess juice on the plate when it was cut into slices. It didn't drip from the sides like a lot of fruits, but it also wasn't dry.
*~*~*Taste*~*~*
The taste of the Dragon Fruit is VERY bland. On my first mouthful I found it to be very tasteless and very watery (then what do you expect of a fruit which comes from a plant that harbours water?).
However, on my second slice I found that it tasted sweet and sharp in different places. I identified the sharpness to be the flesh that was nearer the edges and therefore closer to the skin. The sweetness was tasted in the juice, like sweet water. Though despite the odd "kick" it was still quite tasteless.
*~*~*Uses of the Dragon Fruit*~*~*
This fruit would be ideal to pad out a fruit salad, as it doesn't have a flavour, which would detract from other fruits. It would also be suitable for a buffet style dinner where the guests can snack on easy to pick foods. Because the juice doesn't leak from the fruit when being cut/sliced it would be ideal to take to work or put in a lunchbox.
It is recommended as a supplement to ice-cream or sorbet, but it can also be fermented into wine or juiced into a smoothie/fruit juice.
*~*~*Is It Good For You?*~*~*
As with most fruits they are good for you. Because the fruit has a large water content it does not contain that many calories.
The typical nutritional value of a Dragon Fruit per 100g is as follows - thanks to www.alibaba.com
Ashes 0.68g Fat 0.61g Fiber 0.9g Phosphorus 36.1mg Carotene 0.012g Protein 0.229g Water 83.0g Calcium 8.8g Iron 0.65mg Riboflavin 0.045mg Niacin 0.430mg Ascorbic Acid 9.0mg
The fruit has antioxidants in it and in some countries is used as a substitute food for rice by some diabetics as it is full of water-soluble fibre and Vitamin C and it helps lower blood glucose levels.
*~*~*My Opinion Of The Dragon Fruit*~*~*
It was fairly tasteless and I do not think I would pay £1.99 for another just for my own personal benefit. However if I was playing host to guests then I wouldn't hesitate to invite them to try this exotic though rather bland fruit. It is beautiful on the eye and everybody loves to try something different once in a while.
*~*~*Where Can I Buy Dragon Fruit?*~*~*
We purchased ours in Tesco, however they are also available in ASDA, Aldi and most other supermarkets which stock exotic foods. Prices will vary but we paid £1.99 for ours.
Recommended just to make you try something different.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
You are spot on about the bland thing. Dragon Fruit is like a very attractive woman with absolutely nothing to say for herself. Looks great, but boring. It would not even get three stars from me. I prefer passion fruit. Does not look as eye catching, but tastes amazing. Cheers, Ally
brittle1906 25.04.2008 01:31
Thank you for a very interesting review. You have saved me from embarassing myself, I bought one of these in Tescos and had no idea what to do with it...the things been sat in the fruit bowl for two days! Now I know!
Have an 'E' from me! Linda x
Feb 11th, 2008
exceptional by (15%):
very helpful by (85%):
