food find: rambuton

Funny how once the newness wears off, you kind of forget how extraordinary something once was.  Thanks to the almost daily farmers/sunshine markets that they have on different parts of the island, we have been trying so many different types of fruits of veggies.  Some we love and put it on our regular list of things to pick up.  Some, well, not so much.  We have also tried a lot of local dishes.  

And I can't believe I haven't been blogging it.  Food was, after all, one of my first blog loves.   

The perfect food to start is absolutely beautiful when fresh, frightening when not, delicious, sweet and looks like it came straight out of a Dr. Suess book:

The rambutan.  Sounds like the name of a dance, doesn't it?  I had these once before on the mainland.  My sister in law ordered them from somewhere and sent us home with a few when we visited.  I remembered how good they were so I was excited to see them at the farmers market.  Grows on a tree and we can buy them by the bag, the bunch on a branch, or sometimes 3 for a $1 or something around that.  The first time I bought them the lady was kind of a pusher and somehow I also ended up with a bunch of bananas she told me to buy for my kids.  Karl saw the whole thing happen and was laughing.  


They taste kind of like the most delicious grape ever and the kids love them.  They are similar to their less flamboyant looking cousin the lychee and their homely looking cousin the longan.  Don't know those guys?  Maybe I should introduce them, too.  And maybe because these look the craziest, and maybe because they are new and most unique, I think these taste the best.  

Come to Kauai, and I will buy you (and peel for you, it's kind of tricky at first) a rambuton.