rambutan - a fuzzy fruit

I just tried a rambutan - which was delicious a cousin of lychee both exotic fruit of South America.

I wonder where to get some more, since this was brought in by someone at work.

It tasted similar to lychee, and I opened it with a paring knife exposing it's smooth delicious insides.  Looks like it's rich in manganese.  I don't have it's full nutrition profile but I am sure it's great to enjoy along with other fruits and vegetables.

Fresh Green Chickpeas

After another trip to the cash and carry market, I came back getting fresh Green Chickpeas (Chana), the frozen version I talked about in this post They look like bright green edamame but peeling the skin you get a fresh chickpea. After tasting them, we agreed that they taste great steamed or raw. My son loved them and snapped them up. Here is a picture Strix also posted about these little gems on her blog with beautiful pictures

karela and guava

Last visit to my local oriental grocery store I got some karela and guava to try. Initially I sliced up the karela, that looks like a prickly cucumber but it was very hard and bitter so must be cooked. I tried it in a stirfry but it was very bitter. Second try was to marinate it in lemon juice and vinegar overnight. That turned out ok. We let guava sit until it was softer, since it looked like a pear but when I cut it open it looked /tasted like it should have had more time to ripen. The inside of it is tender, but closer to the skin was not so much. Not sweet, a mild flavor, with seeds which I couldn't chew and had to spit out. I put some in my morning smoothie, but I need to find out more about it and how to eat it/prepare it best.

Garden Update

The Garden is coming along this year. Here you see our tomato is coming along and the arugula is all flowers on top. We still trim some of it for the garden salad. The kale and collards are very slow to grow, but the sunflowers are humongous! I wonder if we are going to get any sunflowers appearing anytime soon.