Chinese New Year brings MHCC oriental fruit and candies

Rambutan

Ivy – “This thing looks like a sea urchin – I don’t know why anyone would want to put this in their mouth,” were my first thoughts. So the outside is hairy, but the inside looks like a large peeled grape, and the seed in the middle looks like an almond. After getting the rambutan peeled you eat the soft squishy grape-looking layer, avoiding the seed in the middle. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind this fruit. It had a very light, mild, sweet flavor. Eating around the almond-like pit was difficult because parts of it kept peeling off. All in all, I enjoyed this crazy fruit – I even took the leftovers home.

Matana – I was excited about this one because I was led to believe that it was similar to lychee, a fruit I’m still excited to try. But, oh, no. Nope, I couldn’t do it. While the fruit did taste decent, it was so hard to bite into and pieces of the pit would tear off with it. Not worth it for me.

Custard apple (Mang Cau – Vietnamese)

Ivy – I really wasn’t sure about this one. The “apple-like” fruit really wasn’t apple-like. The fruit had a lot of seeds to work around and after tasting the meat of the fruit, all I could think was a) “This is terrible, why would anyone eat this;” and b) “I must have picked an unripe one.” If it wasn’t for the Thai restaurant I recently visited that served up Mang Cau-flavored candy (which was much better), I would have zero hope for this fruit.

Glow – The fact that the fruit was hard as a rock made me think that it was like an unripe avocado. I first ate the bit that held the seeds, so I didn’t get a “taste” of the fruit, as I should have. I pretty much spat out what I had and didn’t finish eating it. It was unripe and tasted bitter.

Lotus root covered in sugar

Matana – Okay, the lotus root was cool. The flavor was a little off for me, but the texture and look of the lotus root was so intriguing that I kept eating it. I would definitely  eat this again, but I suspect I’d have to be in a certain mood.

Glow – I couldn’t finish the lotus root, because it was saturated in sugar. Lotus root isn’t known for its sweetness. The root has more of a subtle sweetness and the sugar was rather fermented into the root, rather than covering it. I liked it until I couldn’t eat it anymore. If you enjoy sugary, candy-like textures, this is a great snack for you. This is a seasonal, good luck food for Chinese New Year, so it doesn’t stick around for long.

Ivy – This thing was weird and I will never eat it again. It wasn’t bad tasting – but so different from my usual sugared mango (the only type of sugared candy I will eat.) I couldn’t eat my whole candy, so it’s in the trash now.

Starfruit

Matana – I’ve never had starfruit before, and I think maybe I was expecting something highly acidic, like pineapple. However, starfruit was really light and had only a little bit of that citrus acidity. Overall, I enjoyed it and ate a good amount.

Ivy – Star fruit is a classic; I’ve had it so many times it’s really not that crazy or rare. The fruit tastes a little citrus-y but has a lighter flavor with less pulp content then an orange or a lemon. Very good and cute!

Mogu Mogu nata de coco with mango juice

Glow – The smooth-like mango juice easily went down, but the mango-flavored jellies were like larger coconut meat. The mango jellies are plastic-like, but we read that it’s “hardened” coconut juice. It’s a good drink, but I’m not too fond of many sweet things all at once. I drank this last, so it may have been impacted by the previous sweet food I ate before it.

Matana – Pretty much mango juice crossover with bubble tea. I’ve had similar drinks before, with jellies, but nata de coco is different, since it is physically derived from coconut. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would have it again.

Dried persimmon

Glow – Persimmons are plump-like fruit that looks like a tomato; luckily, it’s not a tomato because when I grew up, I disliked them. I actually grew up eating fresh persimmons and they were always sweet and tasted good. They can be soft or hard and crisp. The dried persimmon reminded me of what I used to love and I enjoyed it. I realized that I was supposed to rinse the fruit once I opened it, but it was too late by the time I got home. It was soft and tasted like sweet potato.

Matana – Weird. I didn’t know what to think, honestly. I don’t really like sweet potatoes, in the way that I don’t prefer them. The same goes for these. While the heavy, chewy consistency of the persimmon was interesting, the taste was just too yuck to eat it in the future.

Taro root

Ivy – I love the taro flavored bubble tea but this was not what I was expecting. After peeling and cooking the root we were able to finally taste it. Unlike my favorite bubble tea flavor, it was very bland and had more of a salty taste than a sweet one. I sprinkled mine with salt and pepper and finished it, no problem.

Glow – I love taro root. I completely forgot what it tasted like when I was younger, but once I took a bite of this, the flavor exploded in my mouth. It tastes like a soft and lighter taro bubble tea, but warm. Ivy ended up putting some salt and pepper on it, and it actually tasted nice.

Matana – Oh, man, no. I can see how its value is held, but I’m just not a bland potato girl. I was looking for more of the sweet, light flavor of the bubble tea and was disappointed when it wasn’t that way.

Editor notes

Ivy – There is one thing I learned and it is that any Japanese/Chinese/Oriental fruit or candy is not nearly as bad as that 1000-year- old egg Gloria fed me.

Glow – My grandpa ate it up, when I gave it to him. I liked it, too…