I lived a sheltered life growing up as my family did not experiment in trying a lot of different foods or foreign cuisines. My Dad did one time convince my Mom to cook okra since he was convinced it was one of his favorite vegetables. It was the only time I can remember that my Sister and I did not have to eat everything on our plate. It was determined that it was not his favorite vegetable! It consisted of green wagon wheel like disks in a raw egg white like slime. Which years later, I found out the slime is the thickening agent in gumbo. And most people either fry okra or they put it in soup. And incidentally, the vegetable that my Dad had mixed up with okra was actually Zucchini. This post is the beginning of a quest to knock off food items on my food bucket list. So from this time forward, I will be trying new foods to me and giving my impressions on them whether good or bad.

The Papaya: I chose this piece of fruit from our local South Jersey grocery store. Of course, I don’t know if this one was at optimum ripeness. The flesh was sweet where it was the reddish and rather blah where it was yellow. The flesh is also not firm, it is rather velvety in texture, almost mushy. I also ate a piece of the skin, and determined that one should discard it. The flesh is easily removed from the skin. This piece of fruit cost me $2.50 and with that said, I have to say, I won’t be running out to buy another one any time soon. Although my friends who are foodies, have stated that  papayas are great in a fruit cocktail, made into ice cream, smoothies or sorbet.