Adventures from the International Grocery: Dragon Fruit

We visited an EPIC international grocery in Indianapolis last week.

Seriously, it was incredible. It was the size of a supermarket, but had the same kind of dodgy ambiance that I'm much more comfortable in than I am in, say, Whole Foods. And it had everything. EVERYTHING! I wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS!!!

The girls were as enthusiastic as I was...for about ten minutes, until we realized that the freezing temperature that we were feeling inside the store wasn't just near the entrance, where we'd spent the first few minutes, but was the actual temperature inside the store. It exactly mirrored the outdoor temperature, but since we'd gone to Indy entirely for indoor activities--a memorial service for a beloved great aunt and great uncle, perhaps lunch downtown, perhaps a wander around Circle Center Mall, a visit to an epic international grocery--we simply hadn't packed coats and hats and gloves, just sweaters and hoodies that weren't cutting it in the sub-zero grocery store.

It was really disappointing, since my kiddos are enthusiastic eaters and I'd been looking forward to having them pick out a ton of new foods for us to try, but we eventually settled into a sort of compromise, with me quick-shopping each aisle, Matt quick-marching the girls up and down and all around to keep their body temperatures up, and each of us calling their attention just to the aisles that we knew they'd be super-interested enough in to justify freezing their buns off while they browsed.

And that's how we ended up with an absurd amount of international junk food, a few interesting things that caught adult eyes as we zoomed past, and an absurd amount of very odd fruit, such as this dragon fruit:

I've seen dragon fruit before but never tasted one, as I'm not in the habit of purchasing expensive, exotic things just for my own pleasure. For my girls, however...

Combine that with the fact that Sydney decided to do her Science Fair project on fruit this year, and yes, we did come home with an example of every single unfamiliar fruit in that store, cost be damned.

And then we tasted everything:

Verdict: YUM! The dragon fruit tasted kiwi-ish, but much more lightly flavored (Who knows when or where this dragon fruit was harvested, of course, so I have no idea if it was under-ripe or over-ripe, both of which affect flavor). I really liked the texture and kind-of-crunchiness given by the tons of seeds. Matt and I each had a big bite to ourselves, but saved the rest of the dragon fruit for the girls, who wolfed it all down within minutes.

Fortunately, we all have Jaffa cakes, mochi ice cream, Ya-Cool, deep-fried plantain chips, and lots of other bad-for-us yummies in illegible packaging to subsist on.