This Is The Strangest Fruit in Rochester

I ran across this strange-looking fruit while shopping over the weekend, and I have to say, it's one of the weirdest I've ever seen.

You'd like to think that after, oh, forty-some years on the planet, that you've pretty much seen everything, right? Especially when it comes to something like... fruit. There aren't too many NEW fruits out there, right?

Wrong.

I ran across this massive, strange-looking fruit at a Rochester grocery store over the weekend and had to take a picture. It was about the size of a watermelon and had those little spiky things all over it. Do you know what it is?

Luckily for me, the sign next to it said this not-native-to-Minnesota fruit was, in fact, something called a jack fruit. And it was selling for $1.99 a pound. I still didn't know much about it, though.

But thanks to the site, foodrevolution.org, I've come to learn several things about the jack fruit. First, it's a fruit that originated in southwest India and spread to other parts of India, Southeast Asia, the East Indies, as well as the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It pretty much grows in any tropic climate, the site noted.

But what does it taste like-- and how do you eat it? The site explained it like this:

When eaten ripe and raw, the taste of jackfruit is sweet and similar to pineapple, mango, and banana. When it’s unripe, the jackfruit has more of a neutral flavor, like a potato, and works well in savory dishes. A great thing about green jackfruits is they don’t have a strong flavor on their own, so they’re able to soak up herbs, spices, and other flavorings. This allows the fruit to be made into plant-based versions of shredded chicken, pulled pork, or other meat-based meals.

So yeah, the jack fruit. That's a new one on me! I didn't buy one, so I can't comment on what it actually tastes like. Have you ever seen-- or better yet, tried-- a jack fruit?

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5
and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 103.9 The Doc