Common Name: Dragon fruit (White flesh)
Vernacular Name: Pitaya, Pitahaya, Strawberry pear, huǒ lóng guǒ, Buah naga, Thanh long
Botanical Name: Hylocereus undatus
Specimens From: Malaysia
Specimens Weight: 700 gms [1 lb 8.7 oz]
Dragon fruit. Why would they called a fruit, dragon? If you had seen the plant, you would understand why. It really does looks like a wild dragon, with lots of messy overflowing branches, similar to the dragon wings, scales or hairs. The fruit itself does look like one too. This fruit is believed to be originated from Mexico to northern South America but it has never been resolved.
This is the most common of the three main species of dragon fruit. It has red skin with white flesh. The other two is the red skin/red flesh and the least common, yellow skin/white flesh.
This fruit is also known as the "red pitaya". But do not be confused with the word "red" as it is refering to the red skin and not the flesh. At times, it may mislead you to think it is the other red-fleshed species. There are also various cultivars of dragon fruit and since they do look alike to a layman, I will just put them under their colour classifications.
Do not mix up with another fruit, "Sour Pitayas" of the same "Cactus" family but of a different species, "Stenocereus spp". The inside pulp look very similar red but it is much more sourish in taste and the exterior look is different with numerous small spines!
Dragon fruit is a beautiful fruit and pretty attractive to look at but have to say, most of the time, the white flesh species taste bland. Just cut the fruit into half and scoop it with a spoon. The numerous small, black seeds are edible and crunchy, so don't bother spitting it out.
You may try putting all the pulps into the blender to make a smoothie or blend with milk to make a great milkshake. As some culivars can be quite tasteless, blend it with any sweeter fruit to your taste.
Fruit: White Dragon Fruit ; Hylocereus undatus ; Cactaceae.
Other fruit in the same family: Dragon Fruit[red flesh].
Click here to add your favorite fruits
Or click on any of the fruit thumbnails to go to that page:
Search your Fruit
Custom Search
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Dragon Fruit (White Flesh)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
I've never seen this fruit before. I know a kind of pitaya in Mexico that grows in really tall cacti they call organos. The fruit is small and its the skin is covered with thorns, but the fruit is really sweet, it comes in pink, red, yellow and white. That was my favorite part of visiting my dad's little town in the state of Puebla.
Great blog!
Ben
wow Fruity ..
it looks like a red/gold goldfish too !!!
it would make a great painting :)
What a beautiful fruit! I learned something new here again. :D Now I have to hunt it down to taste it.
Hugs, JJ
It does look like a dragon! The inside looks friendlier than the outside.
Where do you find all of this fruit?
This one is amazing! The innards almost look like a poppyseed frosting glaze. Which makes me hungry!
I've heard of this fruit before. It's pretty funky looking.
I was actually frightened to eat the red type when I first saw it. But I love it now. Really sweet and juicy.
Serena
ChatnChill
sounds like an original idea for a chilled fruit juice! :D
I have seen this fruit recently, but I didn´t buy any. Good to know how they look inside and that they are quite tasteless.
This one is a beautiful color! It doesn't look very appetizing on the inside though with all those little seeds.
I might have told you before, but we have a friend from China and she often surprise her Norwegian friends with these fruits. Taste lovely :-)
www.terella.no
Thanks to all for your comments.
Ben, yes, it's in the same family but different fruit. It is also known as prickly pear or opuntia.
Kim, why not paint one of the fruits here :)
JJ, hunt for the red one instead. It taste better.
Janet, over here, it's easy to find lots of exotic fruits
Cheers from Fruity
This fruit is more cute than the before one . really superb !!
suman
------------
Free Satellite TV
Found this awesome fruit (a white one) at our local grocery, being adventurous and curious bought it... my son & I just ate it... was clueless about it's insides & were completely surprised by the lack of any connective tissue and the fullness of the edible fruit, the color and the 'seeds' which were not noticable when eating them... It was very 'user- friendly' needing only a spoon. Ours was nicely ripe and tasted wonderful, not 'bland' as stated above but light and sweet and it reminded me of the "Casaba melon", another white flesh fruit... what a surprise and joy this was...
An intimidating looking fruit indeed... But if one can summon the courage, very delicious!
Jason at Foodintol
I tried the white flesh one when my dad brought it from his trip to thailand and it had this slightly sweet taste with an after taste of... raddish? I wonder if the red one will taste better...
I like dragon fruit very much, but not the first time. I thought dragon fruit isn't so good as kiwifruit at the first try, because kiwifruit is more sweet, but when I learn this benefit our body, the more I eat it, the more like it
Post a Comment