Before we left for Australia, I was told about all the unusual exotic fruit and was excited to try all that they had to offer. 
Our Welcome gift at the house in Port Douglas that we rented. From back left: Custard Apple, Pineapple, Mangosteen, Passionfruit, Papaya and Mango.
The inside of a Mangosteen – you eat the small white segments, which are kind of like a tart kiwi.
Papaya which the Aussies call “Paw Paw.” Typically when I’ve had papaya in the past it’s been bland and mushy. This one however was surprisingly sweet and flavorful.
The bugs made an attack on our fruit in the middle of the night! Word to the wise – don’t leave your fruit out over night when staying on the coast! I swear I did not touch this fruit at all before taking this photo (I knew I would need evidence of what happened!). The bugs ate through more than half a nectarine, part of the other, part of an apricot and attempted the melon and pineapple but were unsuccessful. Creepy.
More crazy fruit from Scomazzons Roadside Fruit Stand, which is owned by this spunky 70-year-old lady who knows a LOT about produce. She also really dislikes that Australians now have a 2 dollar coin and wishes they would get rid of that along with the 5 cent coin, like they did the 1/2 cent coin – yes she went off about that for about a good 5 minutes!
A fruit kebab made up of (from front to back) Carambola Starfruit, Star Apple, Nashi Pear, Sapodilla, Dragonfruit, Paw Paw, and Corella Pear.
Ok I’ll be really honest, it was mostly kind of weird. The starfruit was pretty good – crisp and juicy but not very sweet. The Star Apple was just kind of bland. Sapodilla was not sweet at all and had a somewhat caramely taste to it. The Dragonfruit had a bitter taste to it and was full of little seeds (kind of a similar texture to kiwi). Truthfully I mostly just like the pears.
So what did I learn on my fruit tour of Australia? Well I think I learned that in today’s global economy the best fruit somehow gets sent to the other side of the world. People figure out the planting logistics and deal with the customs issues. For the more bizarre and less tasty fruit, it just stays in its homeland. The best fruit I had in Australia were mangoes (check, we get those here), bananas (check) and pineapple (check).
I’m sure some people with disagree with me and say “Erin, you are so wrong! Dragonfruit is amazing! I wish we could get it here!” To that I’ll respond by saying that don’t worry, if you do find a place that does sell it State-side, I won’t be fighting you for it! I’ll be sticking with my now boring looking bananas, apples and kiwis.
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