Turnip Root, Guava, Passion Fruit, and Yellow Plums

It's been a while since I've posted about trying new foods, but that doesn't mean I haven't been experimenting with my taste buds.

Lately, I've been craving greens of all sort: spinach, kale, turnips, mustard greens...if it's leafy and full of fiber, it's been calling my name. My search for fresh turnips continues to prove unsuccessful, but I did find turnip root the other day. I've enjoyed turnip root in UPenn's dining halls a few times before, but I've never cooked it myself. After a few Google searches and YouTube videos, I learned there are several ways to prepare this starch vegetable. I chose to peel, cube, and boil them, later adding brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, and nutmeg. One of my Google results advised changing the water 2-3 times to prevent a bitter taste. I should've heeded the advice, but I didn't. But, my turnips turned out delicious. I think my grandmother would be proud!

On the same night, I tried guava. I've had guava flavored drinks before, but never the real thing. When I Googled (yes, like you I'm sure, I Google many things) how to cut and eat guava, I learned that the seeds are edible and full of nutrients. So, I through my guava chunks, seeds and all, into my blender with some yogurt and little rose syrup for extra sweetness. The blend came out looking like a Pepto-Bismol smoothy, but tasty none-the-less. Except for the seeds. Guava seeds my be edible, but they are not chewable...unless your teeth are strong enough to chew tiny little pebbles.

Not one to enjoy crunching down on rock-like seeds, I tried again. This time I cut out the seeds, but this left me with very little fruit to compliment my yogurt. So, I added some passion fruit. I've never had passion fruit before. I, yes you guessed it, Googled how to eat/cut a passion fruit, and was told to simply slice it in half, scoop out the meat and seeds, and enjoy. Not paying attention to any pictures, I was surprised to find egg-yoke in my passion fruit! After further research, I realized this was the part I was supposed to slurp down. I just couldn't do it, so I through the yellow slime and seeds (these were soft) in with my guava, yogurt, and a little sugar. Ummm, can I say best yogurt EVER! It tasted like melted guava-passion fruit ice cream. And if you know me well, you know I LOVE melted ice cream! Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to eat the passion fruit on its own.

Lastly, we have yellow plums. I was craving some fruit, saw red plums and yellow plums, and asked myself, "I wonder how different yellow plums tastes from red ones?" Answer: not that different. A little more sour, yellow and red plums are about the same. (I'd add pictures, but I'm not really sure what happened to the ones I have. Silly technology. You can just imagine a red plum, but yellow.)