I saw some beautiful starfruit (also known as carambola) while grocery shopping this weekend (found them at Ranch 99). While they were are on the pricey side, I couldn’t resist buying one. Usually I’ll see them on sale in the summer, but so far this summer the prices have remained expensive. Not sure why.
I’m not really sure why I enjoy starfruit. I think it’s one of those food items that I enjoy simply because of the way it looks. If they didn’t look like stars, I probably wouldn’t enjoy them as much. For those of you who haven’t ever had a starfruit, a whole star fruit looks like this:
They are ripe when they turn from green to yellow. The darker the yellow, the more ripe and sweet they are. Because of its unusual shape with five edges, when you cut the fruit, the slices look like little stars. The fruit is usually crunchy and watery, and sometimes sweet and a little bit sour. There is another taste to it, but I don’t really know exactly how to describe it. Sometimes you’ll find a few seeds near the core of the starfuit, which can easily be removed. I first started eating these when I would visit my family in Taiwan. I’ve also tried them in Hawaii. In Hawaii, the ones I found were much smaller, but a lot sweeter too. I haven’t been able to find the small ones in San Diego.
You might like my post about jujube, too!
Yup. I believe they are in season most of the summer, part of early fall, as that is when I usually see them at the market.
These are so cute, can’t wait to try them! Going to the farmer’s market tomorrow–I take it they’re in season?
Nope! I’m not even sure how one would peel it if that was required..it would definitely make the process of eating it harder. All you need to do is wash and slice!
Oh what a good idea! I’ve never seen starfruit used other ways other than just eating it plain (except once on a cooking challenge show on tv). It sounds like starfruit would go well in the soup.
They’re so pretty. Do you have to somehow ‘peel’ the fruit before eating it?
sometimes we throw these in vietnamese hot and sour soup 🙂