Happy's Sunday: Adventures in Food

Dragonfruit (above and below) is beautiful, appetizing and about as bland as fruit gets. Slice it, peel it and eat bite sizes. Then wait for taste that doesn't come.

Cactus leaves and fruit are here for the adventurous Gringo.

This young fellow (above) was selling rambutan, a melon, jackfruit (small below) and something else I couldn't identify. He was busy, so I didn't interrupt to ask.

Halifax cantaloupes sold out quickly. These were left. Not bad.^

This old boy drove to South Carolina Friday, picked up these fresh-picked watermelons and wound up at Happy's Sunday.

I've been buying mid-summer produce at Happy's Flea Market for several years because it's fresh, inexpensive and almost always better than what I can buy elsewhere. Some of the vendors tell me they sell to Roanoke City Market vendors before making their way with what's left to Happy's. I buy their goods for what the City Market vendors pay.

It's finally melon season at Happy's and I brought in a big, gorgeous cantaloupe this a.m., but had to bypass some truly special watermelons because I was on my scooter and couldn't carry something that is basically the size of a small trunk.

I am especially fond of trying foods I don't recognize. This morning it was dragonfruit and jackfruit. I bypassed the rambutan because of its size, but I'm told it's a sweet melon. I considered cactus fruit and cactus (which I tried and liked--grilled--a few weeks ago), but just didn't. My favorite of this a.m.'s haul was the jackfruit, which looks and tastes like a grape (bred with a pear) when you peel it and eat around a sizeable seed.