Good and fruity: Exotic produce often tastes better than it looks

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

"It looks like a star," said June Ernaez as he sliced into the tropical golden star fruit, also known as a carambola.

"It"s great for salad."

But sitting next to the Granny Smith apples, the star fruit is a hard sell at Whole Foods Market on West Charleston Boulevard.

Along with its neighbors, the Korean melon, the cherimoya and other unconventional fruits, the star fruit could go untouched all week.

That's the risk Ernaez and other local produce managers take. They know the scenario: Bring in the unconventionals, the kiwano melons, star fruits, Ugli fruits and blood oranges, and most shoppers will skim past them for the bananas, apples and pears.

"Just last week I got an Ugly tomato, but nobody bought it - too ugly," Ernaez said.

The reality is that the majority of consumers still don't exactly know how or when to eat a Korean melon or a cherimoya (also called a "custard apple").

Kiwano melon, an orangish melon with spikes, is at most a curiosity in some stores. Ugli fruit, a lumpy, greenish-yellow citrus fruit, looks like a casualty.

"The average American consumer doesn't know what it is and says, 'You gotta be kidding,'" said Robert Schueller, director of publicity for Melissa's World Variety Produce in Los Angeles.

"Kiwano melon, it freaks them out. They buy it, go home, call us, e-mail us saying, 'I"ve got this orange spiky thing. What do I do with it?'"

But at least they"re asking. Produce departments at local stores are now featuring items that were once sold exclusively in ethnic markets. Schueller says that over the past few years, sales of specialty and exotic fruits have increased 130 percent.

"While we see apples and oranges not even growing, you see specialty fruits and exotic groups double," he said. "The lychee seven years ago was only available two weeks out of the year. It went from two weeks to one month, then two months. Now it"s available the beginning of May through September and October.

"Blood oranges have seen a double-digit growth rate."

So what's changed? Grocers attribute the interest to cooking shows, magazine articles, multiculturalism, the amount of informational available on the Internet, and savvy diners who see the fruit in upscale restaurants.

Ernaez and other produce managers do their part. They offer samples to shoppers. Part of selling the fruit is educating the masses, said Dave Burgess, staff member of the produce department at Wild Oats on Stephanie Street in Henderson.

Sometimes it's a hit. The fuzzy, brown kiwi, which was introduced to the U.S. market a few decades ago, has become a common sight in produce sections. Other times the items need more prodding.

Of cherimoya, Ernaez said, "When they get ripe, they get black. The fly loves it more than the people. You won"t buy it."

Specialty and exotic fruits are mostly defined by their availability in stores and the countries from which they are imported. New Zealand is known for its passion fruit, tamarillos, feijoas and kiwano melons.

"Mango happens to be the No. 1 fruit in the world, just not in the U.S.," Schueller said. "The banana is the No. 1 fruit in the U.S."

The sweet-tasting Ugli fruit, also known as Uniq fruit, comes out of Jamaica and is carried in some local Smith's and Albertsons stores.

Between harvests in New Zealand and California, kiwano melons are available 10 months out of the year.

Persimmons, which Schueller compared in familiarity to the avocado of five years ago (relatively unknown in middle America), is growing in interest, and peaks in October.

The blood orange, a sweet, berrylike citrus with red juice, is usually available in the United States between November/December and April.

Melissa's distributes more than 1,400 fruits and vegetables. However, Schueller said, "There's still over 1,000 fruits and vegetables that are not allowed in the U.S. yet."

Adventurous buds

At the Henderson Wild Oats, shopper Don Larsen sampled the creamy and sweet Ataulfo mangos, available in the United States through July.

"Life becomes more interesting when you have the opportunity to explore different flavors," Larsen said.

"I like all fruit as it comes naturally from the earth. I love persimmons -- Fuyu persimmons. I've eaten all the melons, the yellow-flesh watermelon."

Most produce managers would love to have shoppers with Larsen's adventurous taste buds.

Like Whole Foods, Wild Oats doesn't stock a lot of exotic fruits, but orders them special for customers who request them, Burgess said.

Smith's on West Charleston Boulevard keeps a more hearty stock, including quince, papaya and kiwano melons.

Holding what looks to be a scruffy orange, Barry Montana, produce worker at Smith's on West Charleston Boulevard, says, "You wouldn't buy this honey tangerine. Nobody would. So I feed them. I give them tastes. Once you taste a ripe piece of fruit you usually get hooked. I got a lot of people hooked on honey tangerine."

"It's not cost efficient, many times we throw it out."

So why sell them?

"We have to carry variety," Montana said. "The bottom line is, 'Let them know.' I hear a lot of dialects in the store. We have a lot of people from Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Phillipines.

"The variety we are carrying is more vast than 30 years ago."

Last week Montana was selling Cape Gooseberries. The butterscotch-colored berry comes in a tissuelike bulb and is used mostly in pies or in salads for texture, Montana said.

Showing the way

To educate consumers on cooking with specialty produce, Frieda's Inc., a wholesale specialty produce company in Los Alamitos, Calif., published "The Purple Kiwi Cookbook," which provides tips and original recipes for exotic fruits and vegetables.

Both Frieda's and Melissa's World Variety Produce offer recipes on their Web sites, www.friedas.com and www.melissas.com.

Chef Kerry Simon, owner of Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock Hotel, said he uses green mangos for salads, guava with venison and kumquats as a chutney with seafood.

"Passion fruit, the blood orange, I do a lot with," Simon said. "I make vinaigrette. Passion fruit goes great with fish. It's got a heavy acid. You grill the fish put a little spoonful of passion fruit on, it brings up the flavor."

Ernaez suggests using the cherimoya, which has creamy sweet flesh, in smoothies.

"When they get ripe, you don't need to chew them," Ernaez said. "It's like ice cream. It just melts. You can make a sorbet out of it."

Local resident Jackie Wright, who uses star fruit and other specialty fruits for presentation at cocktail parties, says, "It's a little bit better than traditional bananas, strawberries and apples."

Though Wright's favorite fruit is the nectarine, she says she uses star fruits for drinks, and papaya and mango for smoothies.

And "Star fruit is great as garnish," she added.

But Wright never tried the kiwano melon. "It looked kind of scary."

Or somewhat oceanic.

"What the chefs do especially in Vegas is split it open, take out seeds and throw them in a fruit salad and use the shell as a bowl," Schueller said. "This fruit is very ornamental. I've used it for a paperweight for months."

But, he added, "You can't throw it up and catch it because you will hurt yourself."