Pepino Melon

My family loves to try new foods. Many families spend their together time doing other things. We have friends that take long drives together. Other friends that take kids to the movies. Our family makes new recipes, tries new and interesting restaurants and ingredients. It's what we do. It is something we enjoy doing together.

This adventure in another country is feeding that culinary exploration. I am notoris for going to a supermarket and picking up the most interesting produce there and then we hunt for it online and read about how to prepare and eat said item. We've had great luck and mostly enjoyed what we've discovered (mostly).

I picked up one of these little beauties at the store this week:

I've put it next to an apple so that you can compare it's size.

We researched and discovered that it is what is called a "Sweet Cucumber" or Pepino Melon. We were unable to really find out a ton about it. We found that when ripe, the purple strips intensify - ours were pretty prominent. We also read that it was tastier when really ripe. So we waited a few days to cut it open.

It was a pleasantly mild tasting fruit that resembled a cross between a pear and honeydew. Very mild and not very sweet. The entire fruit is edible but the skin is tough so we tasted it and decided to peal it away and eat only the flesh and seeds. The seeds are sweeter than the flesh and really yummy. We'll be adding this little beauty to our rotation. It's nice to have something small enough that you can eat the whole thing in one meal.

We also cut into that AMAZING Peruvian Mango last night. The one that was almost as big as my head:

IT WAS TO DIE FOR!!! We'll be getting more of those this weekend at the farmer's market. Seriously the BEST mango I've ever eaten.