As per usual, I took a jaunt to Gourmet Garage in SoHo for lunch today. But amid the soups and sushi palettes, there was something new – a display of bizarre-looking fruits.

Horny Melon

Horned Melon – no really, that’s its name

Starfruit

The horned melon caught my eye, so I took one back to the office, where no one else seemed to have seen one before either. It took Google to figure out what to do with its skin – which was speckled orange, spiky and nearly firm, like a ripe pear.

P1010235

Under Meghan’s watchful eye, I sliced the fruit in half and opened to see bright green insides I hadn’t been expecting. As I stuck the spoon in, the seeds, which resembled frogspawn, popped out.

Horny melon P1010242

And they had the consistency of frogspawn, too. During a straw poll of the office, we discussed how the fruit tasted of cucumber, melon, kiwi and even had hints of banana. While we couldn’t decide whether we’d have it again or not, we could agree on one thing: That the horned melon would make a cracking cocktail ingredient.

For my part, I enjoyed the fruit’s tartness, but found it largely uninspiring in taste. It is pretty though.

I should be doing some work

I should be doing some work