Passion fruit is one of those things I either love or hate. Well, I should say the flavor of passion fruit. I love the scent of it in lotions & shampoos & all that, but sometimes I have something--usually a beverage--that is just not my thang. Like an iced passion fruit white tea I had once. Gag! It was so perfumey that I wanted to hurl. But the other day I saw some almost ripe passion fruits at the grocery store & decided to get back on track with my clam handling via trying a real, live(err...) passion fruit.
I waited a few days for the passion fruit to ripen completely, which you tell by the wrinkliness of the skin. Once it looks like what I assume a very old man’s…well, you know where I’m going with that. Once it’s crazy wrinkly, it’s ripe! Yay weird nature. So, Sunday morning after a delicious & leisurely autumny breakfast with my husband (yup, still kinda weird) I prepared to cut into my passion fruit.
Pay no attention to the pile of apples in the corner. I had leftover from the muffins I made earlier that morning So I cut into the fruit. Well, I tried to, that is. As you can see here, the leathery skin would not yield to my usually sharp knife & went from looking like an old man’s junk to an old lady’s junk. Mmmm, appetizing. Or, for my less twisted readers out there, I guess it kinda looks like a giant, mutated coffee bean, huh?
Once I finally hacked it open I let out an involuntary sad groan. Just what I expected. A viscous, snot-colored custard-like yuck (I actually just gagged writing that sentence). And embedded in this marvel of fruit were dark seeds.
It was at this point that I realized that I didn’t really know how to eat a passion fruit. Can you eat it all? Do you suck off the infection-yellow substance & spit out the seeds? *Seinfeld voice* What’s the deal with passion fruit?
So D--being my wingman--hopped online to make sure that the entire inside was edible(yup) & it was time to “indulge.” I was actually really hesitant. I’d seen pictures of passion fruit in the past, but seeing what was going on inside of that thing was somehow not what I expected & kinda threw me. I’m a big texture/mouth-feel sort of person & by the looks of it the passion fruit taste-test was not going to be pleasant.
Disclaimer: In the upcoming photos you will see my new-found commitment to this blog. You get to see me in all of my awake-for-three-lazy-hours, red-faced, pajama-wearing glory. Glamour! Hotness!! Beauty Queen!!!But I put on my big girl face & stuck my cute ceramic spoon in. Upon doing this I found that the whatnot going on inside of this thing wasn’t as custardy or springy as I feared, which was a relief. It was more of a thick, juicy substance. Yay!
Down the hatch!
It was initially a weird taste which almost instantaneously turned yummier. A little tart, a little sweet . Overall the flavor was nice & tropical. And the texture was no problem! Well, aside from the seeds. The seeds were a little too crunchy, which I at first appreciated when paired with the other part of the passion fruit. But then I was just grossed out by them. Seeds, get outta my passion fruit!
And here are some pictures of D, who is vastly more photogenic than I am pre-shower & who makes the best faces ever & always!! These may be better than the photos of him trying Guinness while at the Storehouse Brewery in Dublin, which is saying a lot.
Verdict: I liked it well enough. I’m not sure that I’d get one again, mainly because of the seeds, but I did really enjoy the flavor of an actual passion fruit. And D? Well, I think the photos speak for themselves, don’t they?
