Tropical Fruit of the Week: Star Fruit

Today star fruit popped up at my local grocer. Known as belimbing in Indonesia and more formally as carambola, star fruit is native to South East Asia. However, carambola is cultivated in tropical and semi-tropical areas throughout the world, including even Florida. That's why, unlike many of the tropical fruits I've sampled here, it's not terribly unusual to find star fruit in the U.S., including distinctively non-tropical places like Spokane. 

You can eat all of the carambola, including its thin, waxy skin. To me, it tastes like what would happen if an apple and a guava had a child. It has a bit of tartness to it and is not too sweet at all, but its flesh is, in its consistency, more like a grape. I have used it in the U.S. as a wonderful aesthetic and flavorful addition to fruit salads as who wouldn't want a salad studded with golden stars?







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