Day 76 of 365

Prickly Pear

I learned today that a prickly pear is only prickly on the plant and tastes nothing like a pear. So I get the prickly part but not the pear.

As you might have noticed I'm eating things that I've avoided for 49 years. Many of my experiences with food during this 365 day adventure have been with items that either look horrible or I've heard they might be a bit nasty. This prickly pear thing brings me back to the Jungle book full length animation movie. Baloo, that fun clueless bear, sings about the prickly pear as he plucks them from the cactus. Then he just pops a pile in his mouth. You don't have to point out that this is a cartoon. I know that. It doesn't make it any easier for me because as I cut up this piece of fruit I loved the color but actually eating it was not great as experiences go.

First, half of what you get with this little gem is skin or rind.

Second, the actual amount of edible fruit inside was as disappointing as my jackfruit from Day 12.

Third and finally, who put the buckshot is these suckers? I'm not kidding. The seeds inside this fruit are hard enough to crack a tooth. I had an extremely difficult time chewing any of it. If you are like me and you eat the seeds in watermelon, it's not so bad. If you try to bite down on the prickly pear seed you're going directly to the dentist. I'm really not sure how this became a person food at all. Let the animals have this one.

I ended up mushing the fruit around and just swallowing it. It's hard to get a true taste eating it this way and there are so many seeds that it's impossible to eat around them. As a whole I would give the prickly pear a thumbs down. It was my absolute least favorite new edible adventure. If for some reason this post inspires you to run out and devour a prickly pear, mush... don't chew.

Day 76 could have been a tooth emergency.

Love & Light