Day 218

Papaya: Yes, I know it may seem strange, but until today, I'd never tasted fresh papaya. While doing some quick shopping at Your Dekalb Farmers Market, I noticed that they had a display set up in the produce section featuring samples of fresh papaya. As my readers know, I love samples - they've allowed me to try lots of new things for free. I've eaten a couple of papaya-flavored items during the course of the blog, but I always prefer trying the real thing first when possible. That obviously didn't happen this time, but it's never too late to try.

I've wanted to try fresh papaya for awhile now, but due to its large size/weight, I've been discouraged from buying it. I usually don't invest in extremely large fruits or vegetables, since I really wouldn't want to throw them away if I didn't like. Luckily, the market had some pieces of papaya cut up for sampling, so I grabbed a toothpick and got busy. My first bite instantly reminded me of melon or cantaloupe, but noticeably sweeter. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm not crazy about many types of melon - they're filler fruit to me. This one was a bit tastier due to its sweetness, but now that I've sampled it, I doubt I'll ever buy a whole one. Not that bad, but I won't seek it out again anytime soon.

Aside from the taste, I have to say that papayas look pretty cool on the inside. YDFM had some halved papayas for sale towards the back of the produce section, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of them.