I'll say that I wouldn't bother with banana flowers again. :)

Have never seen them in a produce market? WHAT do you do with them and WHY would you not rush to do it again?

Ackee and saltfish is a traditional Jamaican breakfast. Ackee is a tree and what you have in a can has been cleaned and pureed. Part of the fruit is poisonous so what you get in a can is safe. Most Jamaicans buy it canned rather than screwing around with the fruit. The preparation, when cooked, resembles scrambled eggs:

(clockwise)

Ackee and saltfish with onions, Jamaican star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito), dumpling.

We have so much interesting stuff here...there's a lot I haven't tried. Just the other day, I noticed Bitter Melon on the shelf at my regular grocery store. I only know about it from watching chef competitions.

I've made my own tamarind paste, since I love tamarind. Once. I think it's like climbing Mt. Fuji. Do it once, it brings you wisdom, do it twice it makes you a fool. They usually have fresh tamarinds, so I'm thinking some people must just have a much higher tolerance for the process. It's not long or hard, but very sticky and bothersome when you end up with something just like what comes in a jar. Fresh head to head with jar is a winner, but the difference in cooking just isn't big enough to bother.

I love nopales, but the family isn't so keen on them, so I don't usually bother with them. Not so much unusual as highly seasonal.

Speaking of seasonal: There were star fruit a few weeks ago, and I got one as a treat, then it got lost in the fridge. :( I love star fruit, and so do the family. I don't love dragon fruit. They look like they should be amazingly delicious and they're really very bland and a little funky--and very expensive. But I adore champagne grapes and always buy them when they come in.

I loved fresh dragonfruit, although I've only found it once, but I bought a jar of canned jackfruit and it was so horrible that everyone who tried it spit it out, ugh. I like Meyer lemons since beachlily was so kind as to send me some, and I still buy them when I find them and make Colleen's lemon curd. I'm also not crazy about super hot chili pepper type things, but I enjoy the hot spices like cinnamon and cloves. I'll eat lentils in every color, I really like them, but mostly reserve garbanzo/chickpeas for hummus, they have a dry texture. Not as bad as those big honkin' mealy lima beans, but still different than pinto/mayacoba/cannellini/etc. beans.

I actually use garam masala a lot, but am not so crazy about hot curries, and I don't like canned eggs, having tried a can of quail eggs from the Asian market. Elery likes kim chee, me not so much. I've still not found fresh figs to try, although Nancy tried to send me some. They were just too fragile to ship, and were not edible when they arrived. I was sad, but I keep watching the Mediterranean Market where they sometimes get them. Since eating Nancy's fig jam and a jar from Evil Jessica, I just want to make my own and haven't managed to get it right with dried figs.

I'm willing to try nearly anything once, although I'm picky about what I'll try twice!

Annie

For me, it is cherimoya season right now, and I have gotten several from my tree so far, but I also find them at the Hollywood farmers' market. I have a pitaya plant, but I have yet to get dragonfruit from it, but I'm still hopeful. I also have a large white sapote tree and have not yet gotten fruit from that either :(.

I agree about canned jackfruit, but the dried jackfruit is excellent. I buy it at a Thai market, and it makes a great snack.

If you have a Middle Eastern market, look for Eggplant Makdous, which is a Syrian or Lebanese eggplant stuffed with walnuts and pickled - I love them. I find fresh fava beans there and use them to make falafel, which I think is worth the trouble. I haven't bothered to buy fresh garbanzos, however, as I am content with the dried ones. I do not like the canned garbanzos, however. I find several different types of garbanzos at Indian markets, but I prefer the common ones.

Here is a recipe for Eggplant Makdous, in case you want to make it yourself. The author says they are "Dillicious" and yet the recipe does not contain dill.

You reminded me, Lars, that I buy a couple of jars of ajvar whenever I make a trip to the Mediterranean Market. I tried the red pepper/eggplant spread at Trader Joe's, another gift from Evil Jessica, and really liked it a lot, but we didn't have a Trader Joe's and it was kind of a small jar. Then I found out that the big jar of ajvar at the Mediterranean Market was cheaper than the smaller jar at Trader Joe's and was pretty much just the same thing.

I tend to wander through the Asian Market and the Mediterranean Market and just pick up things that look interesting, as many items are not labelled in English and I don't really know what they are...

Annie

I can't bring myself to eat sea urchins or ormers.

I had to look ormers up. :) It's abalone! I've read that there are some abalone farms here, but mostly they're caught by divers and very strictly regulated as to how many, what size and when they might be caught. Long gone are the days when it was a common food here. Though I do have abalone shell inlay on my appliance handles. :) Is it really different from clams and oysters? Or snails? I find them more appealing than oysters.

Annie - I'll try to send you some fresh figs this October when they are ripe and overnight them. To me, they are not unusual as I have 12 trees.

pillog - all my kitchen drawer and cabinet handles are inlaid with abalone, what appliances do you you have with abalone????

When I lived in the PNW there were wild blackberries the size of your thumb, and nothing I've tasted since can compare. Here in the South the wild ones are 99.9% seeds and bitter.

I grow a couple goji berries - so tiny that it uses more energy to pick them than it is worth growing them. I have an Asian Pear tree that the fruits sell in the store for like $1.80 per one! I get several hundred every year and make amazing jam from them but other than eating fresh in their short season have no other way to preserve them as they keep only for a couple months in the fridge then lose all their flavor.

When I lived in PR there were butcher shops selling horse meat. It was very red and quite tasty and I didn't know until years later what it was. They also sold several kinds of root vegetables that back then - before the internet - I could not fathom how to cook. Today it is common to find cassava (yucca), jicama, and malanga in my local grocery store, along with plantains, cherimoya, guava, carambola, and papaya. My all time favorite from the Caribbean is Conch Soup. A staple living in PR but impossible to find up here.

Prickly pear cactus has been naturalized here and I make a wonderful jelly from the fruit - called Tuna in Mexico which I find hilarious. The flavor is a cross between watermelon and peaches, unique and delicious and very high in Vit C and fiber. The
cactus pads are too much work and really have not much flavor so I just
let them grow on.

Nancy, for the asian pears, they make a lovely pear butter and you can also can them sliced, or save them for a couple of months sliced in the freezer for use in cooking. If you search for Sand Pear recipes (around here that's what they're called) you'll find several suggestions.

Nancy, they're artisan made pulls on cabinet paneled appliances, and also the island drawers. I never intended to make my mother's kitchen, but somewhat coincidentally also chose brass with natural abalone inlay. It wasn't until well after I'd ordered them that I realized they were the same combination as my mother's. It's hard to get the inlay to show in photos--in the linked one, it's overlit on the fridge and freezer and you can't tell it's there on the warming drawer under the speed oven, but you can get the idea. :)

We get a lot of the tropicals in my local stores as well. There's almost always cherimoya. I didn't know jicama, papaya and plantains were unusual! But I had to look up carambola because I learned to eat them under a totally different name which I can't remember. We don't often get them and I'm so mad that I lost the one I got!

Malanga is new to me, however. They might have it in the stores here and I didn't notice, but I don't think I've seen it. How do you use it?

I find abalone to be quite tasty. However, I'm not a huge fan of sea cucumbers --- too tough. Jellyfish to me is a why bother experience. I also dislike it food that is served still alive and wiggling. Balut is something I once pretended to have already tried so I would not disappoint my hosts. I've eaten (and will eat) a lot of things, but in every culture I usually find something I don't like (usually too strongly aged or fermented, or too rubbery).

Veg wise I love Japanese mountain potatoes (yamaimo), burdock root and prickly pear cactus, and all types of tropical fruits, except maybe rambutans. I'm always in amazement at the vegetable assortment at the Asian farmer's market. I usually will tote something home.

pillog - Abalone inlay on brass drawer pulls

I didn't pay $32 per each as this ad offers - LOL - For a total of $5 I bought the box of them at a flea market in 1970-ish, I think there are about 45. I waited to have my own house before they were used. I look at the everyday and love them. Where did you get your handles?

Carambola is also called star fruit. In the 60's tropical fruit was non-existent in most States, in the 70's we started getting some like papaya and mango, which were exotic then, and in the 80's to today almost every store has them, and the closer to a mixed ethnic population you live, there are more unusual (to us) fruits and vegetables coming in every year.

Malanga is the root of a plant that has leaves like the garden variety Elephant Ear plant (that are never attached when buying the root as it is highly toxic). They look at lot like taro root only hairy, the inside is off-white that discolors quickly. Like the roots or corms of taro and yuca, they should be boiled first to neutralize the calcium oxalate crystals so you don't get cyanide intoxication, and/or they all have to be cooked thoroughly. I watched my Hispanic neighbor slice them paper thin after boiling and deep fried them in safflower oil. He also diced some more up, cooked it for a mashed potato-like side dish. It tastes like a soft walnut with texture. I can find them at the Mexican grocery near me, but also the Harris Teeter grocery store chain. It is more common in the Caribbean to find it ground into fresh paste or flour at home. I don't think I will eat much malanga since it is 75% carbohydrate and very high in calories.

Nancy, those are gorgeous, I 'd also save them until I got a place where I knew I would stay. I don't think I could pay $32 each for them either, wow.

Your southern blackberries sound like the ones that grow wild here, about the size of my pinky fingernail and very seedy. They're flavorful and you can make jam from them, but there's a lot of seed straining for that, so you need a LOT of berries.

12 fig trees, an Asian Pear and goji berries? I'm envious. I planted raspberries but haven't gotten a crop yet, and the wild geese ate every single blueberry last summer, while the deer were eating my small pear trees. If they've survived, I've got to find a fencing solution if I am ever to actually get pears or blueberries. Figs won't grow here, it gets too cold, although I've seen a couple of "cold tolerant" varieties. Not cold tolerant enough! I was thinking of trying a small fig tree in a pot in my entry way, I wonder if they like containers? Some tropical trees grow here in pots but they never seem to get any fruit.

Here I see starfruit, papaya, jicama, but haven't found plantains or taro root, Malanga or yamaimo. I did buy prickly pear cactus once and made sorbet, it was pretty good, but I've never seen it since.

I think we're aren't very adventurous here in Northern Michigan. (sigh) Or maybe things are too fragile to ship that far. Hey, I did try lutefisk once, though. Just once.

Annie

I wonder if they like containers?

Yes, figs love containers. Even here where they grow outside people often keep them in containers because they fruit well when slightly rootbound.

Thanks, Nancy. I'm not even big on potatoes, so I think I'll skip it, but it's a pleasure to learn about something new. My pulls were made by an artisan in WA. I think she's stopped doing that kind of commercial work however. Excellent work on finding that box of pulls and keeping them until you could use them! There was a lot more variety 50 years ago.

Ormers are so big and have to be cooked so they're not at all like oysters that smell wonderfully of the sea.

Annie, Malanga is a common staple in Cuba. It is served mashed, and in Ajiaco (Creole Cuban Stew).

You'll find Malanga, Yuca, Taro (eddo), and Plantains at Horrocks. Although, your local Meijer also carries the latter. And it is where I always get mine.

If you still can't find it, I'll send some your way.

Sol

Yucca root has always been a common ingredient anywhere that I've lived. It is very good to eat if you have tendinitis - the pain will go away within a few minutes of eating cooked yucca root, and it is an old native American treatment. The effects only last a few hours, but there are no side effects, and it does provide temporary relief. I usually sauté it and serve it with pasta sauce and/or Parmesan cheese. It is very popular in Brazil, and so I've always found it in Brazilian restaurants.

I just got back from visiting a friend who lives near a portugese community. I went to an amazing grocery store to pick up some salted cod for my mom. Travelling by bus limited my shopping this time - so no olive oil or cheeses. I did buy some mysterious bean pod like things in the bulk dept that I identified later as Alfarroba or carob. Not sure what to do with them - I have an unreasonable bias against carob for not being chocolate.

Sol, since Elery no longer lives in Jackson, we don't commute back and forth, so I haven't been to Horrock's for a couple of years, unfortunately. Every time we're going to visit his kids and stop, something happens! I did look at my local Meijer, but no plantains. I suppose they all have different items, as the one here is small and caters to the college kids.

Writersblock, thanks for that. If I can keep it 6 feet tall or less by pruning, my entryway might be the perfect place! It is cooler than the rest of the house, but only by about 10 degrees, so it's usually in the 50s out there.

Annie

You're welcome, annie. I should have mentioned that you need to investigate the best container varieties for your area. Down here Green Ischia, Texas Blue Giant, and Conadria are especially good for containers, but the varieties may be different up your way..

Lars, I've always known that Yuca (the tropical tuber) has many health benefits. Even its leaves are wonderful, when cooked. I doubt I'll ever find Yuca with its leaves attached here, in Mi., although, I've had it in Cuba.

Btw, for those who've never had Yuca, and are curious to try, I recommend making the traditional Cuban 'Yuca con Mojo' (Yuca with Creole garlic sauce). It is as loved on the island as Mashed Potatoes in North America.

But I digress - and how. Lars, what I wanted to comment on . . .

. . . I was not aware that Yucca (the tuberous, ornamental plant) had medicinal uses. I didn't even know the root was edible, until a few minutes ago. Thank you for that bit of info. I'll have to delve into it more; my mother will be thrilled to know this.

Sol

Sol, I didn't know until now that they were two different things!

Sorry, Plllog. I tend to disappear for days at a time.

In any case, the two words (Yuca and Yucca) are so much alike, that it's easy to see why they're often used interchangeably.

Btw, I haven't had time to research the health benefits of the Yucca plant, but I'm very interested in learning more.

Sol

No prob. :) Yucca is local. I've heard people say yuca on TV, and maybe in the same breath as Cuba, so I just figured it was a Spanish way of saying the same thing. I haven't looked into it further yet, either, but it's especially interesting now that I know there are two different things! Thanks for teaching me something.

I'll try anything once and many things never twice. I've come across some true favorites by bringing home something unfamiliar. Love winkles and uni and just about all things seafood raw and cooked. Most, like uni and scallops, i will only eat fresh right from the boat. And winkles, (snails). They wash ashore just once a year and thick. The whole village runs down with buckets. Steamed with butter and white wine and plucked out with a sewing pin.

DH would always try the seasonal special app at our favorite Sushi place. One was a small bowl of what looked like teeny tiny noodles. I pointed out that each one had two eyes and they were wiggling, lol. (the look on his face, haha) fortunately i had not tasted...

sleevendog, what is uni? Grew up in a commercial fishing home. I know most all east coast salt water species, and the various names for the same thing. Not familiar with uni.

Uni is sea urchin, My Uncle used to order it every time we went out to our favorite sushi place.

lynn

Thanks, have heard the term on cooking shows. Have never seen it offered on a menu. I imagine it is one of those things that taste better then they look.

I really miss shad roe....it's getting to be that season.....haven't seen it offered anywhere near central Iowa!

@sleevendog -- thanks for the wonderful image of a bunch of people rushing the beach to harvest winkles! The little white wigglers sound like a form of whitebait -- perhaps shirasu (baby sardines). Whitebait is also found throughout Europe --- and also in Japan I think they have a small dried fish that smells terribly.

Once in Taiwan I had even slightly larger fish, the size of minnows, that were scooped up from a tank, dunked in batter and then dropped in oil. They pretty much swam away until they cooked solid, in distorted curls. It was a tough lunch to stomach.

@marcopolo --- uni is technically the gonads of the sea urchin, which somehow makes it the whole thing sound worse. But go to a sushi restaurant and you may see it offered. A nearby hybrid Japanese-Californian fusion place has "Uni Flan" on the menu.

I firmly belief that a diversified eating habit promotes good health. A monochromatic diet creates ailments from allergies to autoimmune problems.

I cook, eat and enjoy everything.

dcarch