16 Unusual Fruits to Try From Around the World

Part 2 of 2

Where to find it: Well-stocked grocery stores and specialty food stores. Here in the Bay Area, Mollie Stones Market sells it.

8. Feijoa (Pineapple Guava)

This fruit was another one of the most popular new discoveries at #FruitCrawl. Feijoa is a small elliptical fruit with tart, slightly gritty flesh that you can scoop out with a spoon. It’s native to Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Where to find it: Forage it, it’s a common garden tree in California. I suspect some homeowners with pineapple guava trees don’t know the fruit is edible! Also, look in well-stocked grocery stores and specialty food stores. Here in the Bay Area, Mollie Stones Market and the Berkeley Bowl stock it.

9. Tamarillo (Tree Tomato)

An egg-shaped fruit with a tart, astringent, and pulpy flesh that you can scoop out with a spoon. The tamarillo is native to South America. I discovered it in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador where it was where it blended with water and sugar and made into a juice.

Where to find it: Well-stocked grocery stores and specialty food stores. Here in the Bay Area, Mollie Stones Market sells it.

10. Loquat

Loquats are a small, pear-shaped orange fruit with large seeds. It tastes like a combination of peach and mango.

Where to find it: Forage it! They are a common ornamental tree in California and you’ll find them ripe in the spring.

11. Sour Plum

Sour plums are the same variety of summer-ripening plums that we know and love, picked in the spring when they are still sour and green. They are a common season snack food in the Middle East, where they are enjoyed dipped in salt.

Where to find it: Middle Eastern grocery stores.

12. Longan

Longan is a small round fruit with a translucent white flesh and a shiny black seed. Longan means “dragon’s eye” in Chinese, and is named because it looks like an eyeball when shelled. Longan is native to South Asia and is similar in appearance and texture to lychee.

Where to find it: Asian grocery stores.

13. Physalis (Golden Berries)

A small orange berry that is sour and sweet. It’s related to tomatoes and tomatillos and you can sometimes see it sold encased in a papery husk similar to a tomatillo. The fruit is native to the Americas but it is most common today in South America. In Peru, the fruit (called aguaymanto) is added to pisco sours and it makes a delicious cocktail.

Where to find it: Well-stocked grocery stores and specialty food stores. Here in the Bay Area, I’ve seen it several times at the Berkeley Bowl and, once, at Whole Foods Palo Alto.