Fitzroy Island in Cairns, AustraliaI woke up on Friday really excited. With a list of all the fruits I wanted to try in hand I was off to the market. Rusty's Market not only has fruits they have a bunch of stalls that offer food. This is what I had for breakfast along with a bowl of Pho:
Samoan Tasting Plate- I have no idea the names of the different foods on the plate but it was really tasty.
Philipino Lechon- If you don't know what lechon is then you better go and find out, right now! This might have pushed this meal to win "The Most Gluttonous Breakfast While in Australia" award. Fatty, crunchy, fall off the bone meat, this was delicious! After this I was ready for some fruit. All of the fruit and produce at the market are picked fresh that morning. You can also find stands selling sugar cane juice, flowers, ready made food, coffee, smoothies, and jewelry.
Paw Paw- very similar to papapa
Unlike the States where we only have one type of banana, the markets in Australia have several varieties. These are called Sugar Bananas. I love bananas!
Cabbage bigger then a basketball
Carambola, also known as starfruit
Lettuce so fresh, every leaf was green, bright, and crisp!
The aromas from this coffee stand was intoxicating. When you order the man asks if you want it ground. If so he then asks if you are using a filter, coffee machine, or press.
A selection of asian greens
Passion Fruit- tangy, floral, tropical, slimy with crunchy seeds
This is the bounty that I came home with. I think it's the ugliest bunch of fruits I've ever seen but didn't your mama teach you not to judge a book by it's cover! These exotic fruits were amazingly delicious and also very interesting. I didn't know fruit can taste like this! Chocolate and caramel oh my! I had a long list of fruits but couldn't find most of them. When I asked one of the vendors she said to come back January to February when it's summertime and all the really exotic fruits are available. From the top left going clockwise: Black Sapote (Chocolate Custard Fruit), Dragon Fruit, Sapodilla, Apple Custard Fruit, Sugar Bananas, Passion fruit.
Apple Custard Fruit is also known as bullock's heart or bull's heart. It has a soft custardy inside similar to a very ripe pear and taste like mango/pear more then apple. This was delicious and my favorite of the bunch.
Black Sapote is also known as chocolate pudding fruit. I saw this on Bizzare Foods and knew I had to try it. How can a fruit taste like chocolate pudding? Indeed the inside is the texture of pudding. Imagine being one of the first people to discover this fruit. After opening it what in the world would make you want to eat it. It's so dark in color it stains everything it touches. I think I cut it open before it was fully ripe and fully mature in flavor because it didn't taste anything like chocolate to me.
Sapodilla - taste like caramel!
Dragon Fruit - I first had this fruit when I was living in China. It comes in two varieties, one has brightly red colored meat like the I bought at Rusty's shown above and the other white. Imagine eating a watermelon with the seeds of a kiwi and that's exactly the texture of this fruit. The flavor is very mellow and indistinctive but fun to eat.
Sugar Bananas - are small bananas with a meaty, dense, and slightly slimey texture.Not shown is a picture of the miracle berries I scored! The lady sold them to me 3 for $1 aud which is about 83 cents usd. I bought 6 and she threw in one extra. She must have thought I was a sucker but little does she know they sell them for more then $5 a pop here in the States. I bought them back to Sydney to miracle trip with my mates and indeed lemon slices do taste like lemonade, Guinness like a malty smoothie, lime juice like sugar syrup, and goat cheese like cheesecake!
Rusty's Market
Rusty's Market
| OPENING TIMES | Friday Saturday Sunday | 5am to 6pm 6am to 3pm 6am to 2pm |
Just saw Andrew Zimmern's show and glad you had more details on the fruit! Especially the sapote, yum. Intriguing.. hope to visit one day myself!
ReplyDelete