Recently, Kato and Alden discovered the game Fruit Ninja on a friend’s iPad. If you’re not aware, it’s a game in which fruit is lobbed gently across the playing surface by unseen forces, and the player’s job is to slice it with a nimble finger. The kids love the game, and it was a helpful distraction on the long plane ride from Seattle to Philadelphia on our way home.
The game features plenty of familiar fruits: watermelon, banana, apple, etc., but it also includes starfruit, which got Kato wondering what a starfruit was, and what it tasted like.
When we were in Baltimore over the weekend, we stopped by a Korean grocery store, which gave us the opportunity to pick one up and try it out.
Here is the starfruit in question (note Kato’s keen interest).
Robbi pulled out our sharpest, biggest knife, and set to work.
The best thing about a star fruit is how the star itself is hidden in the middle. You don’t really get to see just how much it looks like a star until you have a slice.
In addition to being fun to look at and hold, star fruit is very tasty. Kind of like a tangy grape.
Apparently, the real name of starfruit is Carambola, which is a fun word to say, but perhaps not quite as fun as “starfruit” itself. It’s native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, but now it is also grown in the southern United States. Most starfruits have five ridges, but apparently, some have six. Or even seven.
Here’s a pic I pulled off of wikipedia.
It’s hard to beat a fruit that tastes good and has such a fun shape. Even Robbi is a fan.
Perhaps you have been wondering about starfruit, too? Well, now you know.