Dragonfruit

Several months ago, a friend persuaded me to join a grocery co-op called Pal System (Japanese only). Whatever, we just call it "co-op". The way it works is, every Tuesday morning around 10 a.m., the delivery guy swings by with the groceries, diapers, etc. that I ordered the week before. He takes off with my order sheets for the next week, and we repeat. What a beautiful system! Where is the U.S. equivalent of Mr. Co-op Delivery Guy? I need to know, because I have been helped, saved and spoiled by this fine service. Now, I won't go so far as to claim that I NEVER have to go to the market. The co-op meat, though supposedly wonderful in quality and taste, is a bit pricey for me, so I need to make a run to Niku no Hanamasa (Japanese only) for some Costco size packs of meat to freeze every couple of weeks.

Other than that, thanks to co-op, I am seriously free of market runs! And now, I am about to link all this rambling to the mysterious fruit pictured above. It is a Dragonfruit, sometimes called Pitaya or Cerise Fruit. When I saw it pictured in the pages of my co-op catalog a few weeks ago, I had to try it. I was not deterred by the 952 yen ($8.68) price tag, as I rationalized to myself that I had never seen this fruit before and didn't know when I would again have the chance to try it. I felt somewhat better about this line of reasoning when I readthis (in which woman in Munich pays 13 euros ($16!) for a similar fruit).

As for the fruit itself, hmm. It was interesting, I guess. Not nearly as sweet as the brilliant pink skin would have led me to believe. Texture wise, it was something like kiwi, but with a mouthful of poppyseeds. We ate the whole thing in one sitting, so it couldn't have been terrible. And in a fit of economical-ness, I even saved the skin and cut it into small strips, which I added to our soup the next day. You're absolutely right, the soup did turn pink. But Koji didn't care.