Last week the Summer Jar told us to try a new food (the Jar told us this the day after we’d gone to the farmers’ market and eaten sour cherries and Italian broccoli greens for the first time, but apparently the Jar thinks we still weren’t being adventurous enough). So we went to the store and finally decided on a pepino melon, because we’re generally melon fans, and the sign next to the pepinos said they taste like a combination of pears and bananas. When we got home we checked into pepinos a bit, learned that they are grown in Peru, and that they can also taste like a combination of honeydew and cantaloupe. Sounded good!
So we peeled it and sliced it up. Henry grabbed the first piece, took a big bite, ate it, and enthusiastically exclaimed, “I don’t like it!” We all took bites, and really, none of us liked it. There really wasn’t anything there to like. It didn’t taste of anything. Or maybe it tasted like disappointment. Or, possibly, relief, since now I didn’t have to worry about us getting addicted to expensive small imported melons. But now we know! Back to cantaloupe!
Julie, I feel compelled to respond. I was in Peru last year, where we enthusiastically ate sweet and ripe pepino melons sold from street carts (for a few cents each). They are delicious. I did once buy one here after returning home and it was bland, but if you ever have a chance to try a fresh one, you need to!
You know, Andi, it did occur to me afterward that maybe the issue wasn’t with pepino melons per se, but with freshness, since I’ve gotten many a peach — or even a blueberry — that didn’t taste like much. I think I’ll wait until we’re somewhere closer to Peru to try again. Maybe the lesson here is not to buy Peruvian fruit in Maine. Like the time a guy I knew went to Mexico and ordered spaghetti in a restaurant, and it was, predictably, terrible.
What will you do if the jar tells you to go to Peru?
We’ll go to Peru! As long as we can be back by dinner.
Your response made me laugh because we went to Mexico this February with Sidonia, who ordered spaghetti twice at restaurants and it was TERRIBLE both times for her too! (crunchy or otherwise wrong)