Dragonfruit - The Tajmahal of fruitdom

I had been to the vet today. Jojo's (my cat) vaccines were due. Roads looked pretty empty as there was a nationwide bandh (strike) against rising prices of commodities.

'Nature's Basket' (paradise gastronomique) was on my way. I decided to do some grocery shopping. Spending over 3000 rupees on fruits, vegetable and cold cuts, when everybody is fretting over basic amenities, was a bit too much even by my standards. Felt guilty as hell. I know, I know...the fervent idealists would want to hunt me down and mince me into some kind of a cautionary tale. But whatever I did on impulse, one thing I am very happy about -

I bought a dragon fruit today!
Just one.
Rupees 100 it cost.

I had never seen a dragon fruit. Come to think of it, I hadn't even heard about it! Wasn't sure if it was actually a fruit or just a vegetable which looked so exotic that people started calling it a fruit out of reverence (eg. jack fruit). Nice rani pink in colour. Soft as a ripe avocado.

Reached home all happy but riding high on guilt trip. My mothers prophecy "she spends so much, she will drive her in-laws into bankruptcy when she marries" seemed not such a distant reality.

I had only one way out.

I showed my husband the dragon fruit.

'Wow' he said.

I cut it into nice tiny cubes. All set to eat. The bill of rupees 3000 was mentioned as a postscript.

Amidst ooohs & aaahs of the beauty and taste of this delicious produce, the princely tab was a lost story. In fact when I cut it into half, it was as if my own remorse had split itself into many inconsequential bits and vanished. Oh what a beauty!!!!

God is the greatest art director of all. It was over an hour ago and we are still talking about the dragon fruit. The surreal rich pink colour. Crispy seeds. Absolutely no wastage. And how it is totally worth the 100 rupees it cost. Maybe we should look at growing it in our farm. So on 'n' so forth....

Here is how to enjoy this lovely creation of nature -
(Photographs by Vandana & Partha)

Step 1 Just look at it's beauty :)

Step 2 Cut it into half

Step 3 Scoop out the white portion,

keeping the cover intact

Step 4 Cut the flesh into cubes

Step 5 Serve them in the cover and enjoy the cool crunchy cubes!

Step 6 Go refill your plate :)