Jack Fruit

So last weekend, I had a small backyard party, and I decided to buy a whole Jack fruit and open it to serve as a dessert. Well, it didn't go as well as I planned.

I am quite familiar with the fruit. I grew up eating it, and it even grew in a parents' garden. But I've never bought a whole fruit before while living in the States, since one doesn't come across it that often. So it was a bit of a surprise when I saw it in one of our local grocery stores. I bought the whole fruit and brought it home, saved it for a few days, and then opened it in the middle of the party.

It turned out that the fruit is not that fresh. The inside was a dried out, causing the actual fruit itself, the yellow flesh, to be dry and hard to pry out. The individual fruit was also rather small, smaller than I was familiar with.

It was quite a chore to pull out the individual fruit because everything was dry and stuck together.

I've bought Jack fruit before, but only the actual edible flesh. Maybe next time, I'll buy that again, rather than the whole fruit. But then again, it is just a wow thing to buy the whole fruit and cut it open. Maybe if I can find one fresher than this one, probably at an Asian or Indian grocery store, I might try it again.

Zz.

Are People Getting "Avocado Hands?"

OK, I didn't realize that this is such an issue. It appears that people have been getting injured during the process of  preparing an avocado, especially with slicing their hands, so much so that the medical profession is calling this "avocado hands"!

"Avocado hand," as doctors call it, has prompted the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons to warn people about the practice. Improper slicing could lead to nerve and tendon damage. Not even three-time Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep is immune to "avocado hand." 

"People do not anticipate that the avocados they buy can be very ripe and there is minimal understanding of how to handle them," Simon Eccles, a former Royal Society of Medicine president of plastic surgery told The Times of London. Eccles added that his hospital endures a Saturday "post-brunch surge" of such injuries, and he sees four patients each week due to the practice. 

Now, let's be clear, folks. Slicing ANYTHING while holding it in your hand is never a good idea! And with an avocado where you can have quite a variation in the texture of the flesh from fruit to fruit, this makes it even more dangerous.

So how should you prepare an avocado? I always have it on a cutting board. Then I slice it along the pole around the pit, i.e. I slice the knife down from the top of the fruit until I get to the pit. Then I turn the fruit, letting the knife goes around the pit, until I have gone all the way around.

After that, all I need to do is twist the two halves and they will separate. The pit will be stuck on one half, and you can use a spoon to scoop it out. Or do what I do. Place the half with the pit on the cutting board with the pit sticking up, and give a slight whack with the knife onto the pit just enough that the knife blade is slightly embedded into the pit. Then twist the knife, and the pit should become loosen from the avocado half.

To remove the avocado from the skin, use a large dinner spoon and scoop around the fruit in between the soft flesh and the skin, and the avocado should separate from the skin. And voila, you have an avocado half ready to be used!

Zz.

Most Favorite Refreshment In All Of Walt Disney World

I posted earlier of my most favorite snack in all of Walt Disney World. Now comes my most favorite refreshment in all of Walt Disney World. Hands down, it is the Dole Whip float that one can get from Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom, or at the Polynesian Resort.

It is a pineapple-flavored soft-served ice-cream on top of pineapple juice. On a hot, muggy Florida day, it is the most refreshing thing you can have.

The only drawback? The lines can be long and the service can be VERY slow, especially at the Magic Kingdom. For some odd reason, the Disney management seems to think that it is fine to have one person taking the order and then go off to fill the order. So when you get a family of 4 or 5 ordering something, it can take several minutes for the entire order is done and the line can move. There have been many times where I would like to have one of these, but changed my mind because of the line. Even a short line can take longer than you think. It is one of the most inefficient service in all of WDW.

Zz.

Apple Hand Pies

I made apple hand pies this weekend, and it turned out better than I expected.

I used a pie-crust recipe, which I've used before when I make my beef empanadas and baked in the oven. But this is the first time I'm using the same pie crust to fill it with apple-pie filling.

I made my own filling (I'll post the recipe later), and made the crust. Then the next day, I rolled out the dough and made 8 large hand-held pies. Like I said, they turned out better than I expected, and they were yummy!

I definitely will be making them again soon.

Zz.

My Most Favorite Snack In All Of Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World in Florida is a huge resort. With theme parks and hotel resorts, it is almost impossible to sample the entire area.

Still, after going there multiple times in a year, and for a lot of years, I can easily say that my most favorite snacks in the entire place is the Nutella fruit waffle that is sold at Sleepy Hollow in the Magic Kingdom.

It is a thick, Belgian-waffle style, schmeared with chocolate hazelnut spread (thus, the Nutella), and then filled with fresh slices of bananas, strawberries, and blueberries.

It is the bomb! And I may have called it a snack, but it can easily qualify as a meal.

Zz.