Several people commented about dragonfruit in my post on the Kuching market so I thought I’d talk a bit more about it. We’ve grown cactus so we were intrigued to find out that Dragonfruit is the fruit of a night bloom cactus of the Hylocereus species.

Night blooming cactus also brings back some fond memories from my childhood. I remember a neighbor had one on their porch. It was a big thing when it bloomed. They called us up and we went over in the late evening to see it in bloom. It also had a heavenly perfume. I never dreamt that one day I would travel the world viewing plants and eating the fruit of a related cactus. I also just came across a picture of that night.

With Mom and night blooming cactus

The epiphytic cactus is native of Mexico and Central America. They are grown in many of the tropical countries in Asia and Central America. It is also known as Pitaya and Wikipedia has a good write up of the cultivation. It seems like it might be similar to Prickly Pear cactus which I’ve seen but never eaten. I think Prickly Pears are known more for their juice than for eating as a fruit.

The fruit inside reminds me somewhat of a kiwi. It is smooth texture with small black seeds. We had two different types in Malaysia, one had white flesh speckled with black seeds and the other had a dark red fuchsia flesh. They both tasted similar. They were very sweet but I’ve read that the fruit found in the US is often bland and watery. I suspect they pick them too early to ship them to the US but they are wonderful if found in the tropical countries.

To see how to prepare it, here is a step-by-step guide.