Grocery Stores & Lychees

Mother and I just got back from the grocery store. We went into town to buy school supplies (3 notebooks and a new backpack! yay!), which took about 5 minutes, and then decided to make a trip to Harmon's, a place I've never been before. From all the cheesy commercials on TV, I never would've guessed it was such a high quality store, but I was pretty impressed. First of all, their produce section alone was enough for me to bypass the whole processed snack foods aisle - all I wanted to do was get one of everything and try it. We picked up three new-to-me and exciting fruits: dragonfruit, lychees, and a kiwano (horned melon), along with perfectly ripened and sliced mango and a bowl of mixed kiwi and berries and such. They have a whole row dedicated to prepackaged bowls of sliced fruit and vegetables, one that would made Target's 2 feet of peppers and onions jealous.

I tried about 5 different dipping olive oils with bread, of which we purchased the basil flavored one, and went back for 3 pieces of whatever delicious cheese the nice employee was sampling. They had many more brands in the regular aisles than your average grocery store, thus new food items to explore. When we got to the kitchen appliances section, my mom and I were like two kids in a candy store. "What does this do?"  "OH MY GOSH a mini spatula!"  "That is the cutest whisk I've ever seen!" etc. etc. For Christmas I just want a giftcard to spend on cupcake toolery and one of those double sided peanut butter and jelly spreaders.

And did I mention how they have drive-up grocery bag loading? Yeah. You just drive up along the arrows and they load your car with your groceries. Plus the checker-outers were so nice and friendly. I love Harmon's!

So when I got home I was super excited to try my new and exotic fruit, but I didn't eat all of it today, I'm going to spread it out. I had some mangoes and went on an adventure with the lychees, which are small, ping pong-sized fruit with a spiky skin that peels off, and kind of has the structure of an orange on the inside. Except not really. What I mean is that the fruit needed to be pulled off the inner seed in chunks, kind of like a citrus fruit, but without the core. My first thought was the juice had a slightly milky taste, like coconut, but that wore off as I actually ate the lychee (pronounced lee-chee). It was somewhat sweet, and of course yummy. One of the best parts was I didn't need to research how to open the thing, I just began peeling off the skin and then dug in with a knife and pulled it apart with my fingers. I suspect I'm going to have to read a bit more about the other fruits so I don't mutilate them. All in all, trying the lychee was a fun experience, as I always like to try new things, and I would recommend doing so for anybody else who loves fruit as much as me. Here are some pictures of the process.

Dragonfruit, Lychees, and Kiwano

During peelage

Inside

Quick Update: The general consensus from the family is that the lychee is similar to an eyeball, in texture at least, and doesn't taste very good. All I have to say is that they are wrong, and obviously don't have an appreciation for exotic food.