July 27, 2004

¿Monstera Deliciosa? It looks weird, takes a long time to develop (up to a year!), and tastes like a couple totally different things. It's like fruit by Heiner Mueller! This thing is so god damn amazingly tasty...like a Wonka fruit salad...which should explain the name, which sounds like it should be a burrito in surfer country. Oh, and I almost forgot the BEST PART: it peels itself.
posted by jimbecile 20 years ago
  • The appelation "swiss cheese plant" isn't very appetizing for me. Jimbecile, have tasted it?
  • There is a monsteria deliciosa about 150 metres from my house which is probably 8 metres high and 25 around. Never seen one even a quarter as big.
  • Oh, how beautiful! Reminds me a bit of the "hedge apple"/fruit of the Osage Orange. jimbecile, over the years, I have often meant to look up the infamous breadfruit of Captain Bligh/Mutiny on the Bounty, now I am going to actually do so. Thanks so much!
  • bees, i've had the breadfruit in the south pacific. it really is amazingly breadlike -- sorta like a cross between the consistency of a banana and the chewiness of bread. they serve it in lots of different ways, both sweet and savory. plain, it's pretty icky. but with sauces, etc., fairly tasty!
  • Shekmal'hen, beeswacky: I ate some of a ripening deliciosa last night, and was floored. It really tastes like a mix of tropical fruits, with a consistency between ripe banana, pineapple, and, largely because of the kernel-like pieces, corn. I don't think this is "breadfruit" in the traditional sense, either.
  • Monstera (Mexican breadfruit) is definitely a different plant than the Mutiny on the Bounty breadfruit. I haven't eaten either; I'm just a fount of useless information. But yes, they're different.
  • It does look a bit like a hedge apple, but as far as I know you don't want to eat hedge apples. I'm told they do a good job of keeping spiders out of your basement, though.
  • Hedge apples are inedible, but decorative. Thanks for the tip, cabingirl. Not sure I want to keep the spiders out of my basement, though. I don't think I do, since they make these immense, gently billowing curtains of web some years which marvelously obscure the clutter. (So picturesque, my basement.)