To All,
While stalking fruit in the aisles of Whole Foods, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a pepino. The pepino is somewhat larger than a large pear. It is cream-colored with a few indistinct purple stripes. Whole Foods advertises it as the "pepino melon." This name is misleading since it is not in the same family as the true melons; it is, rather, in the nightshade family. In fact, it is in the same genus as the tomato and potato. To the touch it feels hard like a potato rather than soft like a tomato. Like many of the nightshades, it originated in Peru.
I cut the pepino lengthwise as if it were a melon (see picture); at this stage it was easy to scoop out the seeds in the middle with a spoon. I then cut it lengthwise into quarters and cut off the rind with a steak knife; see the picture below of the four peeled quarters ready to eat with the rind displayed in the background. In short, one butchers it like a melon, and the insides were visually much more melon-like than tomato- or potato-like; this explains why it is popularly called a melon. The pepino was now ready to eat.
I lifted a slice to my mouth and took a big bite. Since an alternate name is the "pepino dulce," i.e., the sweet pepino, I expected a sweet taste. Fruits never cease to surprise, however, and there was no trace of sweetness. In fact, there was no trace of flavor at all. Melons are often short on flavor (the Internet experts call flavors like this "subtle"), but the pepino had no detectable flavor. Moreover, melons provide a pleasing texture; the pepino proves it is not a true melon by lacking even a pleasing texture. It was very much like eating a raw potato but without the crunchiness.
Internet experts crow over the fact that you can eat the rind. My immediate response was, "Ugh. Who would want to?" Facing up to my professional obligation, however, I tried the rind. I found it about as edible as the pepino itself. If you're going to bother to eat the pepino, you might as well eat the rind and avoid the hassle of cutting it off. You might say that you should discard the rind to avoid pesticides, but the Whole Foods people would hoot you down over this since Whole Foods does not sell pesticides.
The verdict: The pepino lacks both taste and texture. It is not redeemed by being visually appealing or fun to play with. The final blow is that the Whole Foods price was $3.99 per pepino. That's more than a similar weight of cherries would cost. It's hard to envision any scenario in which a pepino is called for.
This fruit is such a loser that it does not deserve a party tip, which would only encourage its use. I don't want to go to a party where I am served a pepino. The pepino is a party pooper.
The original pepino did not ship well, so cultivars are being developed, and the pepino is now being grown in New Zealand, California, and Turkey. The sticker on my pepino said it came from Ecuador, but I don't know whether it was a true pepino or a cultivar. My guess is that it is a cultivar since it got shipped from Ecuador to Boston. Whatever it is, it is what is available in stores. ("Cultivar" is formed from "cultivated variety." In common parlance it usually means a variety of a plant that has been developed by plant breeders to have some set of desirable characteristics, e.g., insect-resistance, shippability, long shelf life, and big fruit. Some cultivars are discovered in nature rather than created by man.) Maybe the true pepino tastes better than what I ate. I do know that tomatoes in Peru, which is also the homeland of the tomato, taste dramatically better than tomatoes here.
Go to http://paulhaider.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/health-benefits-of-pepino-melon-the-super-fruit/ if you want to read about how the pepino is a super fruit with a long list of health benefits. I myself have long since OD'd on these breathless assertions that claim miracle properties for fruits.
Rick
P.S. Below are pictures that show the full range of the pepino experience.
- Pepinos growing on the vine.
- A pepino in the traditional Peruvian national dress.
- The flower of a pepino, which some of you will recognize as being much like other nightshade flowers; this flower is almost identical to that of a bittersweet nightshade, which you might well find growing in your back yard.
- A cartoon in which the writing is only partly legible but is clear enough to show that my opinion of the pepino is seconded by a horse.
- A still life that shows a pepino hanging out with a horned melon and a tomatillo (another nightshade).
- A pepino-based recipe for a drink called the batido rejuvenecedor, which Pepe translates as "rejuvenating shake;" this proves again that humans will drink anything that contains alcohol.
- A kid eating a pepino; he knows it is impolite to give it a thumbs down, but he can't bring himself to give it a thumbs up.
- Kids being punished by being forced to stare at a pepino for five minutes before being made to eat it.
