white asparagus

angelic asparagus. seriously, how beautiful is that?

sapote

this picture reminds me of winston churchill. but that's probably just me. the sapote was a palm-sized green fruit with a ridiculously soft melty texture. when i bought it, it was tender like a very ripe avocado, with relatively unwrinkled skin. the next day, it was like butter in your hand. any touch affected it, and the skin got wrinkly.

our australian food authority says these are called custard apples down under. which makes perfect sense when you try them. (note: wikipedia says "custard apple" is a name for the cherimoya, which we also tried, so either they're called something different in australia, or he was confused. i can see it. they're pretty similar. the sapote was better, though.)

kind of looks like an apple with two big seeds in the center, but the flavor and texture is like an avocado mixed with persimmon. creamy, and sweet in a non-fruity way. no acid or bite, just sugar and smoothness. the skin is very pearlike, with the same grain to it. pretty yummy. one reviewer even gave it a "delicious" and came back for a second piece.

ugli fruit

wikipedia says this is a natural hybrid someone found growing in jamaica, but given the name and the very effusive website for the grower, i'm not sure i buy it. though it doesn't really matter, because it tastes good. the fruit i got was the size of a big grapefruit, with blotchy orange green yellow skin and tendencies toward floppiness.

the inside looked like a grapefruit made of orange flesh, and tasted like a very very juicy (like, running down your arms) orange with some extra acidity and zing. all four testers appeared to like it. one said it wasn't as good as an orange, but i and possibly one other liked it better.

wheat berries

it's wheat.
it's berries.
it's ... well, no, really, it's wheat, and they call it berries for no apparent reason.

after boiling, soaking, and boiling again, the plain wheat berries were a pleasant chewy blandness, much like oatmeal.

with flavors added, they were pretty decent.
this picture, like the celery root's, is kind of cruddy. sorry. i was trying to get back to the tv in time for figure skating (which ended up being way later, anyway. sadness.) the recipe is from the february 2010 issue of martha stewart living. it's not up on their site yet, but there's a whole feature on walnuts at the end of the magazine. this was a salad of wheat berries, walnuts, dates, celery, and orange juice vinaigrette. quite yummy. it tastes like breakfast, even with the celery. the first bite made me think "candy salad". then it equalized to a more normal porridge-y flavor.

next-day follow-up: people at work liked it, and so did i. and you could probably take the basic idea and mix in just about anything with good results.

celery root

also known as celeriac. wikipedia says it's a kind of celery, and people just use the root part instead of the top part.
it's a rather unprepossessing creature:

the outside smelled vaguely of curry powder. this seemed really random and possibly accidental, but i sniffed them out in a couple of stores and it held true.

the celery root was really hard to cut into. but ... that turned out to be because it was frozen.

the center had a geodelike cavity. don't think this is entirely normal.

raw and plain, it really did taste a lot like mealy celery.

and here's what it looked like prepared:

the picture is so hideous i had to use it. in reality, everything was a peaceful beige color. but i couldn't figure out how to correct for the light with my camera. so the food looks pink.

and now for the flavor ...

it's quite good. on the left, you have a raw salad with fennel and apple (www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Celery-Root-and-Apple-Salad-with-Hazelnut-Vinaigrette-357255 ; note: cut the pieces smaller than i did. there was a lot of chewiness going on.) - it tasted a lot like waldorf salad, with a coleslaw texture. i used walnut oil, because i had it already. i've never had hazelnut oil, so i don't know how much difference it made.

on the right, a cooked puree with a bit of potato and onion (www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Celery-Root-Puree-236200). this tasted like thanksgiving. rich, creamy, and salty, with a celery potato flavor.

baby ginger

let's be honest here.
i have no idea why baby ginger is different from regular ginger. the skin is soft and fresh looking. that's different. there must be some distinctive quality about it, because a recipe called for it specifically. but ... it tasted a lot like ginger to me.
i tried a piece raw and it tasted spicy and maybe not as gingery as i would have thought. but i'll have to do a side-by-side comparison, because i don't think i've ever tried plain ginger.
raw baby ginger (note the adorable monkey shape of this particular piece):

the aforementioned recipe was lo mein on a chinese new year menu. so i got to test out rice stick noodles, too. turns out the size shown below makes the wide noodles they use in thai restaurants. yay!

here's the recipe i used: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/lunarnewyear/cantonese_lo/recipes/food/views/Noodles-with-Young-Ginger-237367 for all of the things that go into this, the flavor is surprisingly mild. i substitued char siu sauce (a chinese barbecue sauce) for the oyster sauce. not sure how much of a difference that made. i doubt it's the culprit. for the leftovers, i've been adding more soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and peanuts, and that helps. scrambling in an egg is my next plan.
the finished dish:

bac ha