A typical fruit plate at The Four Seasons Elephant Camp in Thailand has papaya, watermelon, pineapple, grapefruit, rose apple and dragon fruit (the one with the black specs). Wait rose apple and dragon fruit? Am I on a different planet?
Rather unassuming in taste (meaning it had very little in my opinion), the dragon fruit is beautiful to look at with a bright red skin and white flesh with black seeds. And unlike the durian fruit it has no smell. So why don’t we have them in the US?
In an interesting twist of nature, the large flowers of the plant, which resemble a vine like cactus, only bloom at night during a full moon. In their native habitat, bats and moths pollinate the flowers. The US apparently doesn’t have the right species of bats and moths needed.
So farmers in Southern CA trying to grow them have to pollinate by hand under the full moon (which is expensive and can be dangerous since we all know werewolves hang around during full moons). But, while you are out pollinating, maybe you can quench your thirst with some of the new products being flavored with dragon fruit. Skyy has a vodka, Celestial Seasonings has a green tea and there is a cream liqueur called Dragon Kiss available. So here’s to dragon fruit. Enjoy!