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!