A little beauty with terrible looks (Kiwi Fruit)

Member Name: juleshobs

Product:	Kiwi Fruit
Date:	21/05/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Part of your 5 a day

Disadvantages: looks ugly

Now that the better weather is here I have noticed that I appear to be buying more fruit than throughout the winter months and would like to share a family favourite with you - the Kiwi.

The Kiwi fruit is originally from China and has really travelled a long way to reach our shelves, though in China they are known as the "macaque peach". The Kiwi was an unknown fruit to the Western world until the 20th century which is really quite surprising. The name Kiwi is also very recent as back in the 1960's this fruit was known as the "Chinese Gooseberries" according to my mother, I suppose you can see the where the name came from as rather similar with their hairy skins. The name Kiwi came into being from a fruit packaging firm from Auckland, originally the fruit was know as a "melonette" but the name was changed once the packaging firm learnt about steep tariffs for exporting melons and the name Kiwi was born.
The Kiwi fruit is most definitely one of the least attractive fruit to look at and really does nothing to sell itself at all with its external appearance and some may be put off by the hairy brown peel, sounds horrible but its only the skin and you don't eat this bit. Imagine passing through the fruit section of the supermarket or even in the grocers, beautiful red strawberries, a bunch of green grapes, mountains of plump blackberries and a ugly hairy brown fruit which is roughly the shape of a rugby ball but a bit more rounded at each end.

Those you do not judge by appearance and are brave enough to add this little hairy fruit to their baskets will not be disappointed with their purchase once they peel back the drab overcoat as the flesh inside is a beautiful green with a white pulp centre and very small back seeds that kind of make a star pattern if you happen to slice through the fruit.
Its is quite hard to describe the taste of a kiwi, the flesh has a texture similar to a strawberry but less firm overall and very easy to eat, the white pulp can sometimes be hard if the fruit itself is not quite ripe and not nice at all. When ripe the fruit is very juicy but not too sweet a taste kind of if you crossed a pineapple and a strawberry together with a much more delicate flesh.

Personally I like to peel my Kiwi and cut into pieces and either add to a fresh fruit salad or eat one its own, however, my daughter adopts what I like to refer to as the soft boiled egg approach and just chops off the top of the fruit and scoops out the flesh with a spoon.
A Kiwi fruit is mainly water in content and contains vitamin C, there are reportedly some health benefits to eating Kiwi fruit and studies have been done and proved that Kiwi can help in improving conditions of asthma in children and possibly helping to reduce the risk of colon cancer due to the fibre content.

This is an item that normally is found in my fruit bowl every week along with many other fruits and are always one of the 1st items to be eaten, as a treat you could have them one their own with a bit of cream - delicious.

Summary: Good on its own or as part of a fresh fruit salad.