I bought a fruit at grand central station at the fruit stand. There
was a whole stack of them but the lady did not know what they were. It
is yellow, quite hard, like an apple or pear, on the bottom there is a
deep pocket filled with a bit of pit from what I guess must have been
the blossom. It has a sticker on it that says "frusan" with a photo of
a globe and a little red apple.

I tasted it and it was yummy! very tart and a little bitter. Now I
want to get some more but I need to know what it is.


here is my drawing of it:

http://www.futurebird.com/strangething/01.jpg
http://www.futurebird.com/strangething/02.jpg
http://www.futurebird.com/strangething/03.jpg

Hi there!

Well, aren’t you brave to try a fruit nobody could even identify for
you!  And good idea with the drawings.

My first guess was that your mystery fruit might be a Prickly Pear
Cactus Fruit, but the color seemed too Red compared to your
description:

“Prickly Pear Cactus have been a staple food of Native Americans for
many centuries. Their large, colorful blossoms appear in yellow, pink,
red or purple and grow from the tip of cactus nodules, which later
ripen into delicious red fruit.”
http://www.desertusa.com/magoct97/oct_pear.html

So I did a search for “Frusan” and found they are a fruit shipping
company and one of the fruits they handle is the Asian Pear. This
looks much closer to your description:
http://www.naumes.com/asian.htm

“Also known as Nashi, apple, Chinese and Oriental pear, it is the
oldest cultivated pear known.”  Here’s another link which shows even
better that tell-tale “deep pocket on the bottom” you refer to.
http://www.fl-ag.com/commodities/asianpear.htm

“There are three types of Asian pear: round or flat fruit with green
to yellow skin; round or flat fruit with bronze-colored skin and a
light bronze-russet; and pear-shaped fruit with green or russet skin.
“  This page shows clearly the “bumpy texture” you mention.
http://www.sfc.ucdavis.edu/cgi-bin/spec_crop.exe/show_crop&ID=5

Now…on the chance that this isn’t your fruit, here are some sites that
present good illustrations of various exotic fruits. Maybe one of them
will look familiar to you.

http://www.manhattanfruitier.com/exotic/exoticfruit.html
http://www.capetrib.com.au/
http://www.fl-ag.com/tropical/identify.htm

I sure hope this helps you out.  If I am way off base, I’d be happy to
do some more searching. If so, please feel free to ask for a
clarification. In that case, maybe you could rule out what you know it
is NOT. (For example, I ruled out more “common” fruits like papaya).

Regards, 

-- K~

---

Clarification of Answer by knowledge_seeker-ga on 11 Jun 2002 15:28 PDT

Well, I have to say Tehudi and Chiflado look to be on the right track
here.  Here's a great photo of the quince and it does look remarkably
like your drawing. Especially where the leaves (or flower) sprout out
the end of the fruit:

http://www.uga.edu/fruit/quince.htm

Are we there yet?  :-)

-K~

You did a good job, but I found out at last that the fruit was a
quince! Most people don't eat them raw, but I just love 'em now.

I wonder if it's a quince
(http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ansample.html), although most people
find them too tart to eat uncooked.

I have no doubt that it was a quince. The picture and the description
just do not fit an Asian Pear.

Quinces are little eaten in North America, but very common here in
Chile, in Argentina and in Spain. They are rarely eaten fresh usually
stewed or made into a stiff jelly which is then eaten in slices.

Possibly the fruit is a Guava,
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/guava.html

Hi!

Try this page to see both a quince and an asian pear:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.foodsubs.com/Photos/quince.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.foodsubs.com/Fruitoth.html&h=801&w=801&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dquince%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DN

More quince images:

http://www.oakleaf-european.co.uk/images/Quince%20French.jpg

http://www.luckysoap.com/orchard/quince.jpg

http://www.wegmans.com/kitchen/ingredients/produce/fruit/images/quince.jpg

http://www-ai.ijs.si/DunjaMladenic/photo/quince1.jpg (quince cut in half)

http://www.melissas.com/images/products/480.jpg (again, cut in half)

Hope this helps!!

I realise all peoples tastes differ, but I would be extremely
surprised if the fruit was quince. The fruit is very acidic and very
hard, a tooth buster! It is normally used in cooking, preserves etc.
It is not normally eaten raw, to be sold at the grand central station,
I think would not be viable.

It sounds to me like a Sharon Fruit, also known as a Kaki, which is
yellow-orange and looks a bit like an apple. It has firm flesh which
goes squishy and incredibly sweet as it ripens, and best of all there
is no core so you can eat the whole thing!

OK, silly me: looking at the pictures shows that it's *not* a kaki.
But I still recommend them!