This weekend, while picking up a couple of things in preparation for a birthday party, we discovered this: a honey pomelo. Note how large this fruit is, quite intriguing to come across in your grocery aisle. Neither myself or the mister had ever tried this mysterious fruit, but it would only cost two dollars to buy, so we decided that we needed to find out about it.
As it turns out, honey pomelo is a member of the citrus family. The pith, or the white part of the rind, is very thick and spongy, while the fruit is pale yellow in color. There are a lot of seeds, a row of them coming down outside each of the segments. I’m not sure if this was due to the level of ripeness of the pomelo we bought, many of the fruits’ segments had burst through their membranes. The seeds may start out in the segments, like in an orange or lemon, but ours were outside of the segments.
The thickness of the peel, as well as its airy sponginess, made for really easy pomelo peeling. With minimal force, the fruit all but popped out of the peel.
The pomelo itself was very similar to grapefruit. The texture was almost identical, but it was substantially less bitter than grapefruit and not as bursting with juice, though, once again, this may have had to do with the level of ripeness. The membranes separating the segments were very thick and bitter, so I would suggest peeling the segments as well as the fruit. The scent was what really caught me though, it was distinctly honey-like with a floral component comparable to pear. Anything pear gets a thumbs up from me, and I’m pretty sure I would wear pomelo scented perfume.
Overall, honey pomelo was an enjoyable new fruit, though I liked it better with a little bit of brown sugar. It is quite big, one pomelo was a lot to eat, but luckily we had a few people to share with. Here’s to trying new things!
