The World Encyclopedia of Fruit: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fruits of the World; Visual Identification of Fruit Varieties; Preparing, Preserving and

Paging through this European-published guide to fruit is like going on a mini-vacation to exotic destinations. Kate Whiteman breaks fruits into categories--stone fruits (those with pits, like apricots and plums), citrus fruits, berries/currants, etc.--and then gives invaluable information on each individual fruit, such as where it's from and how to prepare it. Full-color pictures accompany each description. I'm tempted to take this book along with me the next time I prowl through Westborn's produce section--I'd feel better about buying a horned melon (a.k.a. kiwano) if I could reference Whiteman's advice on when it's ripe. Some interesting tidbits about exotic fruit: * An individual jackfruit can weigh up to 44 pounds. FORTY-FOUR POUNDS!! I'd love to see one of these in person, though--yet another reason to go to Malaysia. (As if rambutans weren't enough...) * Snake fruit really does look like it's covered with snakeskin. It apparently tastes like creamy apples; I hope I can taste one for myself some day. * You can scoop the flesh of the dragonfruit out of its skin and use the skin as a serving bowl. What a great idea! Talk about exotic dishware. * Soursop is a variety of the cherimoya, which looks a bit like an artichoke with soft outer leaves. Custard apples are another variety. This clears up a big mystery for me--when I lived in Costa Rica, I always saw "Soursop" listed as an ice cream flavor and could never figure out what the heck it was. Seeing as cherimoya is native to South America and the West Indies, now it all makes sense. * Curuba, also known as "banana passionfruit," is elongated and yellow like a banana but has the innards of a passionfruit. Other varieties of passionfruit include granadillas (the largest member of the family) and maracoyas, also called "yellow passionfruit." Again, huge mystery solved: I went through cartons of maracuja juice like mad when I lived in Germany and wondered all the while why the English word for maracuja was maracuja. When I finally realized I had been drinking passionfruit, I wondered why the damned dictionaries hadn't just called it passionfruit. Ah-hah! You can find my other cookbook reviews at [...].