Some thirty years ago When I first moved to S. Florida, a friend introduced me to his monstera deliciosa which grew rampantly in his front yard, practically covering a very large tree, a beautiful jungle effect. The fruit reminded me more of a firm ripe banana in small cornlike kernels. Diferent, but can't compete in flavor with a nice tree ripened juicy mango!

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks for the info Alberta.

The funny thing is, I don't like bananas much at all so you'd think that would scare me off my search. But I gave a piece of mangosteen to a coworker and she said it was like banana. I didn't smack her, but I thought about it. It was nothing like banana in taste or texture. Point being, I will still try monstera if I get a chance. :)

Were it not a freezing rain storm outside at the moment I would go right to the big Asian grocery store to see what's there. As it is, I will have to settle for frozen blueberries.

A freezing rain never hurt anybody! ;-)

I went back today and got two more bags of mangosteen AND a bag of fresh longan. Over 40 bucks for that! This $hit aint cheap.

Then I went to another store where I got a couple cactus pear, even though I've never been impressed with them before. I figure one more try. I also got a Yali Pear. No idea about that one and since I don't much like pears, I don't have high hopes. But ya never know. I can't wait to bust into them thar mangosteens, mmmmmm.

I love mangosteen - when I lived in sub-tropical asia there were barrels and barrels of them. I'd get them as a snack on the way to school...but actually I'm lucky enough to live in a very diverse city, and I see all sorts of weird fruits (the edible kind) in the markets. Yali pears - not a big fan...they're too juicy and sweet..like over-eager apples.

My own search for fabulous exotic fruits hasn't gone so well! Saturday I finally made it to the Asian super grocery store. All they had of any real interest was guavas and I managed to find one that didn't have a granny-thumb hole in it. It's ripening in a bag on the counter now with a couple persimmons that were like rocks. There was a crate of durian but I wasn't quite up to that. The other thing I got was a big slab of winter melon. It looked so cool and delicious! OK, yeah, you're probably laughing right now because I didn't know it's not a melon. The upside is that I had to hunt up a recipe to use it--a Thai Chicken and Winter Melon Curry--and in the process had to replenish my supply of tamarind paste. There is one more smaller Asian store I know of that I can check but I don't know how soon I'll get there.

The alternative is to grow them! Weren't you recently looking for non-orchids to grow?

You've got a good point there! As soon as I get a chance, I'll chip through the ice and begin preparing planting beds.

Can't you just grow them in the oven? Just rig up an extra light and a mister :P

I can't stand winter melon *blech*