fruit that is shaped like a star? yes, please!

first off...i love stars. i know, i know...what an emo kid, right? maybe back in the day i'd admit to that, but now...not so much. i mean, my old AIM login was checkoutthestars. how much more emo can you get than that?

august's new food of the month was star fruit. they're really crazy looking with a not-so-crazy taste. don't get me wrong...i liked it. it just wasn't that tasty. i was hoping/expecting a much sweeter taste. they had good crunch and a lot of water content, but the taste was subpar.



 star fruit:
-would i recommend it? yeah, why not?
-easy to prepare? sorta. rinse and cut, but then there are tiny seeds to pick out. probably not a must before eating, but to make it more pleasurable.
-availability? most grocery stores with a decent produce section will have these
-health benefits? it helps lower cholesterol, it's also known to cure headaches, hangovers, and apparently good for nursing mothers because it can help stimulate the flow of milk?

mmm...seaweed

"nori seaweed rice crackers are like corn pops that have soaked in sea water..." that's what i said after eating a seaweed cracker for the first time. this new food of the month was something else. i guess the point of emily and i trying a new food every month is to make it something we've never had or might not ever try...but this one was weird. they are all natural though so that's good, right?

they're also cholesterol free, msg free, fat free, and even gluten free! they're also kinda taste free. i don't mean that in a completely bad way...it just seems like they were a little bland is all. 30 grams gets you 110 calories so it's pretty comparable to similar rice cakes and/or light chips. the sodium count is a bit high coming in at 280mg per serving, but the protein is a surprising 2g per serving.

seaweed crackers:-would i recommend it? i probably wouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for a bag
-easy to prepare? if you can snack on a bag of chips...you can easily prepare this
-availability? probably not at your local grocer. maybe somewhere like fresh market or an organic shop
-health benefits? fat free/cholesterol free food with a hint of protein

yes, ugli fruit is ugly

i'm a little late posting about the new food of the month for may, but hey...better late than never? i don't think i like that saying. oh well.

this month (may) emily and i tried ugli fruit. yes, it is spelled hipply with an 'i' and not a 'y' at the end. and yes, i might have just invented the word 'hipply' which means to do something while trying to act hip and cool. back on track...ugli fruit is unbelievably ugly. we weren't really sure what our new food was going to be until we were walking through the store and came across it. we didn't even know how to pick one. they all looked old and moldy and gross and disgusting and nasty and run on sentence like. after at least three minutes we were finally able to pick the best looking ugli fruit they had. friends, don't worry, they put a sticker it that screams 'ugli' so you won't confuse it with your grapefruit at home.

the texture of this thing was a little weird to say the least. it was soft and squishy (think old, moldy orange) and even had weird dark spots here and there. emily did a little research (google) and figured out the best way to prepare it. she went with the old school cut it in half and eat it approach...which i feel was the best decision. it looked a lot like a grapefruit combined with an orange, but with a thicker rind. seriously...the rind was almost a half inch thick. i was a little let down by the taste of the ugli fruit. i was expecting it to be packed with flavor, but it was basically like eating an orange and grapefruit at the same time. yeah, lame! don't get me wrong, it was good...just not awesome.

ugli fruit:

-would i recommend it? sure...for ugli people (see what i did there?)

-easy to prepare? umm...yes. eat it like an orange.

-availability? we found it at hyvee (which is just fun to say)

-health benefits? it's fruit, dude. tons of vitamin c.

how do you pronounce this?

this month we wanted to find something a little out there. well...i think we managed to do just that (at least i thought so). walking by this particular food we saw a sign that read "jicama" and immediately we had to start trying to pronounce it. after emily and i both realized we both knew it should be our next new food we try. come to find out it's also known as a Mexican turnip (a little useless fact for ya).

the inside of it is white almost like a potato. speaking of potatoes...the texture of this thing is a lot like a potato combined with a pear (at least when it's uncooked). i think i definitely want to try this again, but maybe cooked in something or for dipping in a hummus maybe?

want to know something cool about jicama? (why yes tony...we do of course) we eat the root like you see in the picture below, but the rest of the plant is actually very poisonous. seriously...who was the lucky one that figured that out?

jicama: 

-would i recommend it? yeah i think so. it'd probably work best cutting into wedges for dips or throwing it in a salad.

-easy to prepare? cut it up. we ate it raw, but you can cook it.

-availability? we found it at hyvee (we've seen them at wal-mart)

-health benefits? low in calories and an excellent source of fiber (six grams per cup!), potassium, iron, calcium, and vitamins C and E

chill it, don't spill it

coconut water was the new food/drink of the month for march. to be honest...i wasn't too excited at first. i didn't know what to expect, so i was caught assuming it'd be bad. i pictured it to be dirtier than what it was, and taste really bitter.

it was actually quite the opposite. it wasn't clear like water, but pretty darn close. it sorta looked like salt water? i should have known it'd be good by the words "chill it, don't spill it" on the jug. it turned out to be really sweet and it actually reminded me of coconut milk or almond milk...but not as thick.

coconut water: 

-would i recommend it? yes, and i'm actually going to try it as an alternative to sports drinks when running

-easy to prepare? shake it, open it, chug it
-availability? we found it at fresh market
-health benefits? low calorie, sweet, natural, high potassium, and here's a fun fact: one cup of coconut water actually has more electrolytes than most sports drinks

food of the month

i'm adding a new monthly post to my blog. as the title states...it's going to be about a new food (or drink) every month. emily and i are not picky eaters by any means, but there are still a lot of things we haven't tried.

this month we tried an asian pear. the aesthetics of this thing are pretty sweet. emily especially liked the "packaging" it came in. i really didn't know what it would taste like. actually it was a little surprising. i almost felt like it had a pear + apple + potato combination going on. it was sweet like an apple and/or pear, but had the texture/crunch like a potato. i would definitely eat one again...but it's not something i'd trade my regular pears and apples for.

asian pear: 

-would i recommend it? yes

-easy to prepare? wash it and eat it...pretty simple :)

-availability? we found it at wal-mart (go figure)

-health benefits? low calorie and good healthy fiber!