Pomelo: A Disappointing Discovery

Grapefruits have been a bit of a ubiquitous fruit in my family since I was a kid. If they were the yellow fist-sized orbs with a yellowish-white segmented flesh, they tended to be sour (and not nearly as pleasant as the rosy pink flesh filled fruit, but on par with the unreliable ruby red coloured grapefruit) so as youngsters we were allowed to drizzle a teaspoon of grenadine syrup in one big concentric drip over our half of grapefruit. We then used our serrated pointed spoons specially invented for digging out the flesh of the grapefruit which tended to root itself firmly against the soft white interior side of the rind. If you didn't use a serrated curve-edged knife (specially invented for segmenting the grapefruit) first to loosen the flesh then using the spoon would only result in a lot of sticky splattering. As a kid, when I woke up and went downstairs for breakfast in wintertime, there would more often than not be a half of a grapefruit sitting in a bowl at my place at the table with each juicy bit perfectly scalloped by either my mum or my dad, and I could just dig in with my spoon.

My grandparents were snowbirds who fled a winter existence in a highrise in Kitchener, Ontario for six months spent in a trailer home in a retirement village outside the town of Port St. Lucie, Florida, just an hour south of West Palm Beach. It's grapefruit and orange country down in those parts, and after a few years of tacky XXL t-shirts from various state fairs or tourist boardwalk, my parents prudently suggested a single gift: one crate of pink grapefruits at Christmastime for the whole family.

So, now knowing my love of grapefruits, imagine my absolute delight at seeing a football-sized one the other day at my grocery store. I'd heard of pomelos but I'd never really had the urge to buy one. This time I did. So I picked one up, all wrapped in shining cellophane, and encased in an orange mesh netting. I couldn't wait to get it home and cut into it. I ripped off the packaging and carefully spun the fruit like a top just to marvel at the enormity of it. I sat it like an egg, with the wider part of the teardrop shape on the underside, and I cut it in half. The rind was almost an inch thick and very stringy and sort of chewy-looking. The flesh looked dismal - pockmarked, dried out, sort of like styrofoam. But after spending a few dollars on a single piece of fruit, I was hardly going to toss it without trying it. Sadly, it tasted worse than it looked. It was much sweeter than a grapefruit, more saccharine, and tasting a bit like candy-floss, basically, it tasted fake. But it wasn't just the flavour of the thing, it was the consistency. I don't know if your gag reflex is as bad as mine, but give me a mealy peach, whose flesh tastes like a mouthfull of earthworms, and I'm done. I'll spit that out so fast, depositing it wherever it's convenient - back on the plate, into a napkin, into a closed fist, out the window, into my lap. I don't care. It is better than taking it all the way down and then having a full blown outright hurl 5 minutes later with much greater consequence. The pomelo did not endear my gag reflex to its sudden existence in my mouth, in the cavity in the centre of my tongue. I chewed to get the full effect. I pondered it in my mouth like I would a nice wine for a few seconds. But then that piece of pomelo flesh was out of my mouth so fast and into the pit of my palm, that I had only a few moments of grimacing and head shaking to get the bitterness and general pithiness out of my system. 

I don't know. Maybe it was my pomelo that didn't work out so well. Maybe like most fruit you get a few bad ones in with a few glorifying ones. If any of you have had a wonderful experience with a pomelo, please do let me know. I would hate to ruin its reputation single-handedly.

Facts: The pomelo is indeed a giant citrus fruit and it is native to Malaysia. It is thought to be an ancestory to the grapefruit (duh, it looks exactly like it!) so says numerous food reference books. The typical size, like the one I tried, is of a canteloup-size, but they can grow to be as large as 25 pounds and be shaped more like a watermelon.

Comments

[john]

I think you probably got the wrong kind of Pomelo.
I tried them in Argentina and they were fantastic...

A little recommendation, I found these to be so delicious and useful in my kitchen: http://bajoseasonedsalts.com/

Cheers.

John

[francis]

daphne --- pomelos when ripened on the tree are a rare treat. they are juicy with a soft tangy bite. what you purchased was i believe picked very green. give the pomelo another chance. they are plentiful during the chinese new year.

[Alisa]

Francis is right, give pomelos another chance...

[eatereater123]

I suspect you purchased a very old pomelo. Just like oranges, pomelos have a season (which was the beginning of September into late October) so what you bought was the left overs that have (by now) dried out. At the height of their life, they are bursting with juice and have a wonderful sweet with a touch of sour tang. After spending a few weeks or even months, they dry out and their sugars convert into starch.
Try buying one earlier in the year, and choosing one that is heavy for its size, with a slight citrus fragrance.