Pitaya, fruit of the dragon (reprise)

In January 2025, I wrote a post about pitaya (called "dragonfruit" in English). Since it is a fruit that grows in tropical regions, it had been difficult to find in the areas where I've lived most of my life. The outside of the fruit is definitely strange looking 🙀 and lends credence to the English name for the fruit, with little imagination required. But, the inside is what really captivated me when I saw pictures of it online. I'd never seen a fruit with such a creamy-white inside, dotted with little black seeds. It looked amazing, like something from another world!

In that above-linked post, I wrote about the price of the fruits here, and how I found a better deal on frozen chunks of the fruit in a local market. I enjoyed it, and found the flavor to be somewhat reminiscent of both kiwi fruit and red raspberries. The fruit was red on the inside, though, not white. So, while I was happy to finally have tasted dragonfruit and liked it, I still wondered what the white-inside variety was like.

One day I happened to find a whole dragonfruit in another market and decided to buy it. The price was still a bit high for one fruit (USD $5, or about 5 HBD), but I remembered that  ...𝕐𝕆𝕃𝕆...  and added it to my basket. But, what was the color of the fruit inside...?!?!? Apparently, there is no way to know, just by looking at the outside of the fruit. It could be white, or red, and I think I read somewhere that yellow is another possibility, all with a slightly different flavor.

^{~ the thick, leathery-feeling "scales" on the outside gives "Dragonfruit" it's English name ~}

When I cut the dragonfruit open, I was delighted to find the inside was white. I sliced the fruit into little cubes and popped one into my mouth. It had a similar flavor to the red variety, but it leaned more towards the taste of a kiwi fruit and less like raspberries. And I noticed the flavor was much more subtle than the red variety.

So, if I were to buy dragonfruit again (and I very likely will, at some point), I think I would rather have the red variety because it's more flavorful. I think the bag of frozen chunks I found at Walmart was the best deal, overall, for several reasons. First, the bag definitely contained more pieces than a single fruit would have, and was cheaper than a single fruit, too. Plus, there's the guarantee of getting the more flavorful red variety. And frozen, I can eat what I want and put the bag back in the freezer again; although I assume fresh dragonfruit could be frozen, too.

It is fun trying new foods and life is short. So, '𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒑𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒎' and go for the gusto! Do you like dragonfruit or other tropical fruits?