The curiosity is over.  I ate it and was disappointed.  Expecting it to have the texture similar to radishes – I was told that by someone who loves radishes and had eaten the fruit – I was glad that it didn’t.  Distinctly flavorless as a whole, the soft black seeds give it a fun, crunchy feel in your mouth.  In fact, if there was an easy way to extract the seeds, that is what I would eat instead.  The white pulp around it has a somewhat gelatinous feel, at least when it’s ripe, such as this piece that I ate.  As a tropical fruit, however, it has not a biting taste or sweetness that would make it unforgettable to the senses.  It may, however, be a perfect diet fruit:  I felt full after a couple of slices.

As beautiful as it was on the outside, and even an interesting view once undressed, I have decided this obsession is over.

I went into a small Asian grocery store simply to see what they had as I have never been to that particular one before.  It was distinctively Vietnamese as I could tell by the owners. While in line waiting to pay for the baby bok choy and Chinese broccoli (gai lan), my usual vegetables of choice, I saw these gorgeous pieces of fruit piled up everywhere.  I had only seen them in movies, and there they were beckoning me with their bright pinkish red skin looking almost like artichokes.  Not having eaten one before, I wondered if they needed to be steamed like artichokes and eaten the same way.  I never thought about what may be inside such beautiful structures.

Apparently you peel from the center out, and what you get is freckled meat inside. I have yet to taste it as I didn’t buy one at the time, thinking it may not be an ideal situation to try out new fruit unless you are with company, especially if you are prone to allergic reactions.  This looks really exciting, though, and it has infinite possibilities in use – I’ll have to look up recipes.  Not only is it beautiful, its name is absolutely worthy of my obsession.  Oh, dragon fruit, welcome to my world.

The pink guava is deliciously and sensuously succulent when you bite into a perfectly ripe one.  There are different variations of the guava, but the pink one stands on its own.  The color combination of pink and yellow green is gorgeously unique.  It grows in a tropical climate, but you can buy the liquid version of it in Asian grocery stores.

My family home in the tropics used to have a few guava trees in its yard.  One was of the smaller, white inside / dark-green outside variety which was still tasty when ripe.  The pink guava tree, however, used to bear large fruit that amazed me to no end in its appearance and flavor.

Now, living in a temperate region, I miss all the tropical fruits that were so abundant and within my reach.  Most of all I miss the pink guava and its pretty constitution.

Update: some of the various types of guavas:

I’ve always tried to not like roses simply because they were popular with everyone, and I have a tendency to do the opposite of what is popular.  In fact, I adore lilies and orchids more.  However, when it comes to growing these plants, roses are much easier and more abundantly beautiful to grow.  I’ve grown several colors and shades of roses in the past.  All they require is plenty of sun, great soil, and most of all, meticulous pruning.

This is a black velvet rose, probably my favorite one.  The petals have a distinct velvety appearance and they can go darker in color such as the one below.  They grow tall with enormous flowers and buds, and they have less thorns, although larger than normal.