Passion Fruit – PICKLES & PASSIONFRUIT

– By Passionfruit

Without consciously knowing it, this could be the reason we moved here.

The first two weeks we lived here, we lived in a hotel. It was January and the hotel’s breakfast bar served these strange, somewhat ugly fruits, cut in half with a small tea spoon. It was love at first taste. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and tart with crunchy edible seeds that snap satisfyingly in each bite. And the fragrance… I can’t believe it took 42 years to taste one of these.

Never judge a wrinkly fruit by it’s skin.

This summer I started seeing them at all the markets, which is where we buy our fruits and veggies. Not knowing the season was so long, I eagerly started grabbing them, afraid they could sell out. Turns out the season is long, thankfully. In my passionfruit frenzy I didn’t stop to consider that there’s an art to selecting the perfect PF. I stopped. I watched the locals, who carefully pawed through them. They were selecting the wrinkly ones. They were selecting the heavy ones. I took mental notes and now consider myself an expert PF shopper.

Just Call me Passionfruit

The Juicy PF Facts:

Harvest season is between June and December. Summer is prime time
It’s a creeper and grows on trellises
Native to Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina (it’s the national flower of Paraguay)
Introduced in Taiwan by the Japanese in 1901 during Japan’s colonization of the island
The passion fruit is a pepo, a type of berry, round to oval, either yellow or dark purple at maturity
In a 100 gram amount, it contains a daily value of 36% vitamin C, 42% dietary fiber, 11% B vitamins riboflavin, 10% niacin, 12% iron and 10% phosphorus. BOOM!

The three most common types grown in Taiwan:

The purple variety = dark purple in color when ripe, has relatively less pulp and juice, and is not very sweet or acid.
The bright yellow variety = a strong aroma, more juice and high yield
Tai-Non No.1 = The main commercial variety, which is a hybrid of the other two. This variety is bright red when ripe and good for juicing. In addition, it has low acidity, a fragrant aroma and a smooth, glossy skin.

Mandarin = 百香果
Pronunciation = Bǎixiāng guǒ (by-shung-gwo)
Literal translation = Fruit of 100 fragrances