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Food for Thought Friday: going exotic🌴 fruit-wise that is!
 
Hello again!

So fun to get all your replies last week :). I guess I DO have a small backlog of content that has been milling around in my head and cooking notebooks over the past several months, so… although I don’t want to fully commit to weekly newsletters just yet, I am back again this week with a recent fruit discovery! (Just gonna take writing week by week for now and see how it feels.)

Let’s just say we took our first winter in Pittsburgh pretty hard 😬. Or at least, my husband did. Since he works from home and I'm also home with Jazzy, we're together a lot, so I absorbed the brunt of his complaints about the gray, dreary land I had brought him to. His gripes about our new city are mostly about the gray weather, mine are about the food 🤣.

I will probably start sounding like a broken record with this one, but WOW I didn’t quite realize how different and amazing the produce/food is in California until I left. I mean… I knew, but I didn’t KNOW, ya know?

I prioritize shopping locally and seasonally for produce, but local produce in Pittsburgh during the winter is basically.... stored apples? So… we had to start buying some tropical fruit. Because to get through the winter, one must allow these small pleasures 💁‍♀️. You can only eat so many apples and oranges, am I right?!

In our tropical fruit explorations, we have made a new delicious discovery! I'll let you take a guess from this photo of our kitchen countertop the other day after my husband went to the grocery store....

Take a minute and see if you can name them all... Ok, I'll give you a hint. Of the two fruits you might not be able to name in this photo, it's the easier one to see of the two...

Ok, what's your guess??

And the winner is...
...
...
...
...
...
YELLOW DRAGON FRUIT! It's the yellow, spiky fruit in the back left with the two blue/green stickers.

Maybe I'm just late to the game, but I have never heard of or seen yellow dragon fruit until this year - found at our local Whole Foods in Pittsburgh. Previously, I've only seen and occasionally purchased the dragon fruit with the bright pink skin on the outsides. It's always beautiful to look at but, frankly, pretty meh and flavorless to eat.

Let me tell you though - the yellow-skinned dragon fruit is WAY better. SO DELICIOUS! Worth the expense! Same interesting texture of black-seeded, white flesh, but these ones are JUICY, flavorful, and refreshing.

Here's a closeup of the sticker, in case that's interesting:


And even better, here are the insides! Can you see how JUICY it is?!?

To eat, you simply spoon it out and into your mouth. YUM!

So... next time you are craving a sweet treat, have a glance at the tropical fruit section of your local grocery store, and keep your eyes peeled for these yellow, spiky fruits! Give one a try if you are feeling adventurous, and if you do - I'd love to hear what you think of it! (Also - these are soft and delicious for babies. With a unique texture too!)

In related news, I recently discovered tropicalfruitbox.com - which delivers all kinds of exotic and tropical fruits (they even have cacao pods!). Fresh fruit was one of the most welcome gifts we got in our first few weeks of parenting. I'll never forget DEVOURING the chilled, cut up watermelon and peaches that our neighbors dropped off on that muggy August evening when we first brought Jazmine home. I also won't forget the fruit and snacks grocery delivery that arrived from my friend a few weeks in, on the EXACT day we had run out of both necessities! If you know what those early baby days are like, you know what I'm talking about! As such, fruit has become one of my new go-to gifts to send in the mail, so that's how I discovered this site. I haven't ordered from them for myself yet, but we've sent to a few friends and family members who were very happy with their gifts. 😁 (Not sponsored or affiliated with them... but maybe I should apply to be, haha!). Thought I'd mention it just in case you're dying to try the yellow dragon fruit and can't find it locally! They have it for ordering!

That's all for now! Until next time!

love,
Jess

PS. Intending to move my newsletter over to Substack in the coming weeks. If anyone has thoughts/feedback/opinions on that that you think I should know, I would love to hear from you!
 
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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from chore to lifestyle through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Sometimes the text above may include affiliate links, meaning (at no additional cost to you) I get a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This helps me to continue to share free content, so I would love it if you buy through my link! Thank you for supporting Garlic Press Jess!




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