Unsual Foods

Some old friends came over to visit us in the late afternoon today. We decided to have hot pot for dinner.  There were some interesting foods at our table tonight.  Our friend brought some unusual looking fruits.  She told us that these are called Cherimoyas. The outler layers are dark green, very ugly looking things:

The inside looked like this:

It had a mildly unpleasant smell, but not very strong.  The texture of the flesh was like a very ripened pear.  We were surprised that it was very sweet and juicy.  Our friend told us that they got them from a friend's backyard in the Los Angeles area.   It's called Cherimoya. When she first got them they were green and they turned to dark green a week later.  I found more information online; apparently they are grown in South America.  For more information, check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya

I also bought another fruit from a local Asian supermarket for everyone to try.  It is called Dragon Fruit.  I often saw this at the Asian supermarket, but didn't know what they tasted like.  I decided to get one and let everyone share the taste. 

I googled it online and found out that the Dragon fruit is a beautiful fruit grown in Southeast Asia, Mexico, Central and South America, and Israel. The plant is actually a type of cactus, and the fruit comes in 3 colors: 2 have pink skin, but with different colored flesh (one white, the other red) while another type is yellow with white flesh.  I also found out it has a stunningly beautiful fruit with an intense color and shape, magnificent flowers and supposedly a delicious taste. It has more interesting facts, please read this link and see the beautiful flower: http://www.squidoo.com/dragonfruits.  The one we tried tonight has a kiwi but light sweet taste .

 I also served this classic French dessert, Opera Cake with a pot of hot tea tonight.

I have heard so much about this classic French dessert but never had a chance to try the dessert.  It was created by Louis Clichy, who called it the Clichy. But was popularized by the Parisian pâtisserie Dalloyau as the Opera cake and is now mostly known by that name.  It is a wonderfully rich and dreamy combination of  almond biscuit, chocolate ganache, coffee buttercream, and chocolate glaze. It looked like a very refined and decadent layered cake.

 

I bought the cake from Trader Joe's for $8.  There were 8 slices of cake.in the box.   It tasted so delicious and is worth the money to get it if you have never tried it before.  Here is a recipe my friend had tried it before with great result: Opera cake recipe.

This also reminded me of a famous French song, La Vie en Rose.  It is also one of my favorite songs:


It is always nice to have a chance to try something unusual. Have you tried anything that's interesting lately?

P.S.  After trying a few greener cherimoyas, we discovered that the greener ones had a stronger fragrance and they were more enjoyable to eat.  It tasted like a papaya, only sweeter.