Fruit Hunter

Fruit is one of the most important food components in our diet, Wiki define fruits as ‘In botany, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) formed from the ovary after flowering.'(Wiki, 2018) It was one of the earliest food we have for our ancestor, in general, it’s a term for the food we are eating every day. Personally, my favorite is gala apple, not only because I believe old saying ‘an apple a day, keep doctors away’, but also this fruit has the crisp texture and fresh aroma, also it is perfect to mix with many kinds of salad. 

TNT Supermarket

People always have one of their favorite local markets where they shop every day for fresh ingredients whether it has the freshest seafood or various of meat choice. The market in my neighborhood is the famous T&T Supermarket, the largest Asian food market in Canada which has more than 20 stores all over the country. Since its target customer is Asians, basically I can find anything I used to eat back to my hometown. The shelf full of hundreds of ingredients directly imports from Asia, it’s so fresh and that’s important for Canada’s winter. In addition, it also played an important role as Asian culture ambassador to introduce local food and unique tradition to local customers. It is a nice approach to combine different culture together and that’s the beauty of Canada. 

Pitaya (Dragon Fruit)

The Pitaya is one of nature’s most unique plants, it looks like an explosion of flame and a fruit like a pink rosebud. It is widely known as dragon fruit, its originally from Central America but is also grown and exported from several Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Vietnam. The dragon fruit is actually one of several cactus species and, just like its relatives, has a succulent stem that provides a uniquely delicious fruit with moisture in the arid climates where it typically grows.

The French introduced the fruit into Vietnam over a hundred years ago. According to some accounts, the French took the fruit from Nicaragua and Colombia, while others say the French brought it with them from Guyana in 1870 as an ornamental plant. Today, Vietnam is the world’s leading exporter of dragon fruit, with revenues from dragon fruit making up 55 percent of the country’s fruit export turnover. (Food Facts, 2016)

The plant is a climbing cactus vine that grows well in dry areas. Because of its epiphytic nature, it grows best in soil with a high level of organic materials. Its flowers bloom only at night, hence the plant is sometimes also called the “moonflower” or “Lady of the Night”. The flowers, which bloom for only one night, are white and large, measuring 30 cm long or more. They are bell-shaped and produce a sweet fragrance when in bloom. Pitahaya plants can have between four to six fruiting cycles in one year. It can be propagated by seed or by stem cuttings. (Naidu, 2016)

Dragon fruit bears fruits for five months every year, usually from early summer through mid-fall. It begins flowering in early summer, typically in June, with fruit formation occurring shortly afterward. In general, summer is the best season to tasting this special fruit. My favorite is Thai red-fleshed pitahaya but it is rare to see in the market and have a higher price $7-$10 for each, the one I bought today is regular white-fleshed pitaya . 

• 

• 

The flavor of Dragon fruit is a mixture of sweet and sour, depends on the origin and maturity. The texture of bite is soft, but the seeds inside make it also taste tender. It will last for more than two weeks if you don’t peeled it off, but you better finish it ASAP if you opened it already.  

This fruit is good with most of the fruit salad, such as the famous Thai mango salad.

Recipe

• 1 white-fleshed dragon fruit
• 2 firm green mangoes – peeled, pitted, and cut into matchsticks
• 1/4 purple onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 3 sprigs cilantro, or more to taste, leaves removed and stems discarded
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon crushed peanuts

Steps

• Mix dragon fruit, mangoes, onion, red bell pepper, and cilantro leaves together in a bowl.
• Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, and brown sugar together in a separate bowl until the sugar is dissolved; pour over the mango mixture and toss to coat. Top salad with peanuts.

This is an easy quick dish, but you apply it to a summer party’s appetizer it could be a boom! In addition, you can also add yogurt with it, and increased the layer of texture. 

By shopping fruit from the market and adding to your recipe, it gives you a direct experience how to adapt ingredients from worldwide to composite your recipe. Local flavor always stays with the local ingredients, cooking is much more than process food when you start to combine multicultural elements inside generating fusion dishes, it’s a communication with culture.

Reference

• Fruits.(n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved Nov 30, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit
• T&T Supermarket Figure 1 [digital image]. Retrieved from  https://www.tnt-supermarket.com/on/
• Naidu, S. (2016) Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved from http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_768_2005-01-11.html
• Food Facts. (2016). Retrieved from https://foodfacts.mercola.com/dragon-fruit.html