Sexy Fruit?

Who says raw food ever gets boring? At our most recent trip to Mom's (still the BEST grocery store ever), Andrew and I fell upon one of the strangest fruits we've ever seen. Of course as is his lovable habit, Andrew had to buy it for novelty's sake. Once we took it home, it became something of our pet for the next few days. What was it you ask? It was a Monstera Deliciosa aka. the 'Delicious Monster'.

Hailing from Glaser Farms in South Florida (not so local, I know...), our little monster is actually a native fruit of Mexico and Guatemala. He's a tropical fruit grown on a very large leafed philodendron, and likes hot and humid areas. Okay, I know fruits don't have a sex, but really, just look at it. I'll call him a 'he' if I want to.

Like most of my raw diet now, I couldn't eat this lovely fruit immediately but had to wait for something to happen to him. Usually, I have to wait a couple days because of dehydrating, sprouting, etc. but this time, I had to wait until our fruit decided of his own free will that it was ready for our consumption. In other words, the directions that came with it (yes, this fruit actually came with instructions) said that you had to stick it in a cup and pretty much wait for the fruit to peel itself. What?!

Yep, the fruit can only be eaten once its mature and ripe, when the outer green skin you see in the picture falls in pieces of its own accord. As it peels, the fruit exposes its fleshy white inside, that you can cut just like a banana. The center of the fruit actually has a core that's very much like a tiny version of a pineapple core (it's too hard to eat). But wait we did, and here was the process:

Its taste was familiar yet foreign to me. It kinda tasted like some form of tropical asian fruit, a cross between a banana, a pineapple, and maybe dragonfruit or jackfruit but with the texture of lychees and the shape of a corn kernels... weird no? That's probably a terrible description and this Delicious Monster really should be able to stand on its own for overall coolest looking fruit and most bizarre taste and texture combination, but that's my take on it.

If ever you see one in a grocery, definitely pick it up for the novelty! You will miss him once he's gone though. I kind of liked having him sit on our kitchen table until he decided to reveal himself to us.