Hawaii: The Exotic Fruit!

Coconut

First you get someone to open a coconut for you.

Then you pose pretending to whack open the coconut.

And then you have a coconut!

No but seriously opening coconuts with the machete was loads of fun. I felt like an authentic Hawaiian. We usually ate one or two coconuts per day between the three of us. They had a special tool to twist through the outer skin to make a hole for pouring out the coconut milk. Then you put it on the wood and WHACK WHACK WHACK and pretty soon there's a sizable crack and it splits!

The age of the coconut determines the consistency of the fruit inside. For instance, a younger coconut will have tasty water but not much meat, just a flimsy membrane to slurp up in one or two bites. Older coconuts have meat that's a little mushy or hard as candy. With the more solid ones, we made coconut fries:

Jackfruit

Jeni's friend Wade picked this ripe one off of Anne's tree, sliced it open, and...

Voila! You take out one of the little pods, remove the seed, and eat it. It has a smooth, slimy texture and is quite chewy. Jeni says it takes like juicyfruit bubblegum. With the extremely potent smell and peculiar taste, I didn't particularly love it...
(photo borrowed from http://www.skyfieldtropical.com/encyclopedia/images/id,32/)

This is what they look like on the tree. They're HUGE, bowling ball sized or bigger. They can sell for about $15 or $30 bucks depending on the size.

(photo borrowed from http://lycheefruitstore.com/pictures/100_0023.jpg)

Rambutan

Mom thought this was a sea urchin when she first saw the picture.

But really it's a dragon egg! It tastes like lychee.

We also ate lots of lychee, strawberry guavas, guavas, pineapple, and apple bananas. It's fun finding fruit along the side of the road and eating it.