Filipino Fruitstravaganza!

As you might imagine, the mean streets of Manila are lined with carts selling the whole spectrum of strange and exotic things, the most numerous of which is some of the most delicious-looking fruit you've ever seen. Despite the healthy allure, we were told by several local people that severl Oregon Trail-esque diseases would result if we gave in to temptation and stopped for some (American GI tracts and Filipino water supposedly don't mix).

Thus, we kept our animal urges for tropical fruits under wraps until Thursday night, when we walked to a local supermarket and went on a tropical fruit bonanza. Two types of lychees, a bunch of mini bananas, a papaya, a Korean pear, a guyabano, many mangoes, durien candy, starfruit, pineapple, and dragonfruit; enough for a dinner for six.


Overall, the "fruit dinner" was fantastic; the odd grocery store experience (massive selection and Asian fruit packaging), the exchange rate (the whole meal was $15 or so), and the freshness of the fruit all conspired to make it a righteous feast. We hadn't had many of these fruits before and came up with a group consensus of how to describe them:

Guyabano: Tastes like a banana and honeydew melon smoothie with a strange twist; the crew was split on whether or not to recommend this one.

Lychee: Peeling one bears eerie similarity to eating a hard boiled egg...the outer shell looks like an artist rendering of HIV and the inside actually looks like an egg, though the fruit tastes more like a juicy kiwi + coconut



Papaya: The papayas here are sweet with a subtle coffee flavor; really delicious!
Picture = starfruit eyes and papaya mouth?


Korean Pear: Probably the most refreshing fruit we've ever tasted; it's a mildly sweet pear but very crisp and juicy

Starfruit: Rather like a watery apple. A bit sweet and bitter, but not heavy on taste.

Dragonfruit: GORGEOUS appearance but weak on taste. Tiffany says that they taste much better homegrown and very ripe.


Mango: Seemingly the favorite fruit of the Philippines for a reason: they are awesome here. Picture = mango, being used to demonstrate the tiny-ness of the bananas here. But so delicious.


The pictures say more about the meal than words can. We set up shop with a 40 cent kitchen knife and several bags of fruit in our hotel's cafe and didn't rest until only four pounds of compost remained; hope you enjoy the photos!