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Up until last year, if you wanted a fresh mangosteen — a creamy, citrus-y fruit that we like to call, today, a “space mango” — you’d have to go to one of the countries where it’s grown: Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Burma, Colombia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. (Wikipedia says there is a possibly apocryphal story about Queen Victoria offering a bounty for anyone who could score her some back in the day.) But there’s good news: Last July, the first irradiated mangosteens (so treated as to kill exotic fruit flies that could mess up our entire economy, oh wait) were allowed into the U.S. They’re still kind of a find, but increasingly, they’re showing up in Asian groceries and high-end food sources (Joe the produce guy at Whole Foods on South Street says they do get them in from time to time) and they fetch a pretty penny: Mangosteens are selling for up to $10 per pound. (They’re also said to help cancer patients greatly.) But the believers rhapsodize about them like they’re some miracle combo of pure opium and angel food cake. The guy in this New York Times video actually kinda scared us with his fruitgasm. Nevertheless, we’ll try anything twice: Mangosteens, here we come.
Wikipedia: Behold, The Mangosteen
NYT: MangosteenTV
FriedasProduce: Mail Order Mangosteens