When I was in college, my boyfriend told me about these magical and mystical fruits you could find in California, the Promised Land of Milk and Honey. Being a naive and sort of sheltered girl from Toledo, Ohio (the Industrial land of Glass and Jeeps), I believed everything he told me about this wonderful place called California.
One day, he described this mysterious fruit called the Pineapple Orange that LOOKED like an orange but TASTED like a pineapple!
I was so enamored. I eventually married this guy.
And then one day, years later, we were in California and I excitedly asked him to show me the mysterious pineapple oranges. We went to the market and looked and looked and looked. Albertson's, Ralph's, Ranch 99, Seafood Palace . . .
And we kept looking and looking and looking. Finally, dejected, he pulled out his iphone and tried to convince me that the fruit indeed must exist because he saw it on the internet.
To this day (and we've been married for eight years now) I still have yet to see a pineapple orange. I'm starting to wonder if they really exist or not. You know what they say about believing everything on the Internet . . .
He still insists they're real and he's had them. I won't believe it until I taste it.
On the other hand, these beautiful guava pineapples (also known as feijoas) DO exist. I saw them at the Farmer's Market in San Francisco at the Ferry Building on DAY 2 of our Foodbuzz Festival.
I've never tasted anything quite like this before. Yes, it reminds me of a guava, but juicier and sweeter on the inside and more tart and bitter on the outside. The inside is fleshy, sort of like . . . a pineapple, I guess, while the outer ring is characteristically grainy, just like a guava.
Apparently most cultures do not eat the skin, and instead scoop out the sweet, inner flesh with a spoon. I personally love the tartness and bitterness of the outer ring. I think it balances out the fruit nicely. So I chopped up these babies and ate them WHOLE! Yum yum yum.
I guess even if pineapple oranges don't exist, these guava pineapples are pretty yummy, and frankly, I'd probably like them better than any orange that tasted like a pineapple. :)
I found a place that sells them online. We should order them and try it!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pellcitrus.com/pineappleorg.htm
what a great story behind this fruit...glad it made it back to Boston ok!
ReplyDeleteIn New Zealand you seldom actually pay money for these babies because someone in your neighborhood is bound to have a proliferation of feijoa in their backyard. They're best, in my opinion, when the skin is just a tad wrinkly and you scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Oh, how I want one now, but alas, I live in Japan. Check out the site I order from when I got a big case of homesickeness; shopenzed.com for feijoa jam, juice and chocolates if you're keen. And if you go that far, I HIGHLY recommend the Kiwifruit and Habanero hot sauce.... and then you may as well order the Kiwi classics moro bars, jet planes, pineapple lumps and a King Size block of Cadbury's. I know what I'm doing now after I hit the publish button!
ReplyDeleteCute post. Your husband will feel so vindicated if someday you do actually find a pineapple orange! The pineapple guava, on the other hand, sounds delicious...I'll have to make my way over to the ferry building this weekend and see if I can find one.
ReplyDeleteoooooo!! i must eat this next time i'm back!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThose are really expensive. I grew up in Vallejo, close to SF and my parents have a large pinapple guava tree. I am the biggest fan and get bowls upon bowls of them.
ReplyDeleteSo jealous! I would have loved to have brought those home with me as well! Oh well, I did get persimmons, lol!!
ReplyDeleteIf you find that mysterious pineapple orange, I want to try one, too! ;)
ReplyDeleteI was just at the local produce stand and passed these by, not knowing what I was missing. I'm going back tomorrow for sure. Will report back...
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend Jen. Does the Mister appear on the blog?
We have them at our farmer's market here in Santa Barbara. They taste like a pineapple/guava mix and i love to eat them whole. It's so funny to hear about the pineapple orange, lol.
ReplyDeleteWow I learnt something new, they are also called Pineapple guava. They grow like weeds here in NZ, but I can't stand them. The smell gets to me unfortunately. I even bought feijoa wine once, but couldn't drink it because of the smell. Most Kiwis totally love the fruit though.
ReplyDeleteWe have a tree in the backyard in Los Angeles, but mostly the squirrels eat them before we can. My 9 year old daughter likes to use them for batting practice. Personally, I'm all about the lemon and orange trees. Those fruits she is not allowed to touch. Enjoy!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice find! I wish I had a bigger farmer's market near me that sells these type of fruits. San Diego only has tiny farmer's markets. I've never tried a pineapple guava before, it sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteanother great discovery of the weekend! i should of bought some too... was too lazy to carry them =) but they were tasty!
ReplyDeletei felt the same way when i discovered Cherimaya...
Pinapple Orange?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/pineapple.html
I second what Emily said, 24$ does seem about on par with Harry and David and the holiday fruit trays they sell. If its that important a one time purchase would be a nice holiday treat, a healthy one at that!
ReplyDeleteAbout what time of year do sell them at the farmers market in San Francisco? It sure beats a trip to New Zealand to get my fix.
ReplyDelete