Hawaiian Tropical Fruits

One of the boons of a tropical vacation is the tropical fruit!  😋

The USDA guidelines specify what you can and cannot bring back to the Mainland from Hawaii.  For example, fresh pineapple is ok, but most other fruits are not unless you bought them at a USDA approved facility that has treated them for pests and has labeled them as such.

Thus you are likely restricted to enjoying your fresh fruits while you are on the islands.  For a veg*n traveler on a budget, this is heaven!

The Hilo farmer's market has been featured in magazines and travel websites.  It is open from dawn til it's gone.  I saw it open even on days not listed on their website.  It's conveniently across from the bus terminal.

Here's a guide to some unique tropical fruits available there as of May 2022:

1) Surinam cherries- $5 for a ziploc bag. They are very tart.  Think cranberry meets cherry.

2) Egg fruit- center, oval orange fruit.  By far my favorite of the bounty below.  It has the texture of a hard boiled egg yolk without the sulfur smell, and it's about as sweet as a yam.

3) Soursop- left, prickly green, $4/lb.  It has a creamy texture and tart taste "like Sour Patch kids" said my travel companion.  It has seeds, so watch out for those.  The vendor helped me to choose a ripe one that was soft enough to cut into and ready to eat that day.  

4) Apple bananas- top.  Under $3/lb.  The texture was more dense than a regular banana but not as dense as the miniature bananas at Asian supermarkets.  Other than that the flavor wasn't all that different to me.

5) Ice cream beans- upper right, $1 each.  Each seed inside the pod is surrounded by the white edible part.  The texture is similar to cotton candy on the outside and a fibrous or sinewy lychee on the inside.  It is less sweet than lychee.

6) Mountain apples- red, below banana and ice cream beans.  They are not very sweet at all, and the texture is like a not juicy hard apple.  I was not a fan.

7) Bread fruit- brown, lower left.  The texture is grainy and harder than a kiwi but softer than a firm pear.  It is not as sweet as a pear, though.  

8) Mangosteen- Lower right, $10 a lb.  Clearly I didn't choose these well.  The ripe ones should be deep purple all around with no hardened sap which indicates bruising.  The only edible part is the white casing of each seed inside.  These unripened ones were 80% inedible shell.  The white casing tastes a bit like lychee.  Way overrated and expensive in my opinion.  One of them was still too hard to cut by the time I left, so it went to waste.

In addition, there were many varieties of papaya (solo, strawberry...) and mangoes galore!  There was also dragonfruit, lychee and longan.  I didn't include these fruits in my post since they are available at Asian stores on the Mainland.

Per the vendors I spoke to, guava and passion fruit (lilikoi) were not yet in season.

Toss in some macadamia nuts (Mauna Loa large bags were less than $8 from one vendor with some bargaining), and you have a veg*n and even fruitarian friendly meal!