What was the last piece of fruit you ate? A banana? An orange? Why don’t you get a life and try some of the planet’s most bizarre fruits for a change? Here are some of the best ones around, along with a vegetable which you have probably never seen either.

The Pitahaya

Mexico is a fine place to try some weird fruits and the strange pitahaya is one of the stars of the show. The flesh can be a lovely red colour of a creepy bluish tinged white. It is filled with little seeds and it tastes rather less interesting than it looks, I am afraid to say. Unless I am mistaken this is the same fruit they call Dragon fruit in Asia and other places. Eat it the wrong way and you’ll be picking seeds out of your teeth for the next month.

Physalis

This looks like a delicate piece of art but it is actually a physalis. What do you mean; you don’t know what that is? Heck, it’s like a gooseberry but covered in a papery sort of stuff. Give it a try in a salad one day and you might be surprised at how tasty it is.

Custard Apple

Am I the only person who thinks that custard apple is one of the best names for a bizarre fruit ever? It just conjures up the image of a piece of fruit dripping in creamy custard. This fruit is sweet and is used for medicinal reasons in some parts of the world. Sadly, there is no custard in it as far as I can tell.

Funky star fruits are among the most visually pleasing foods which nature has given us. The taste is a complex combination of different flavours which can confuse and disorient the taste buds but, hey, it looks like a little star when you cut it into slices. Great for kid’s parties and for when you feel kind of depressed and want to add some star based joviality to your vitamin intake.

The Roman Cauliflower

What on Earth is this monstrosity? It looks like something you would find stuck to a rock at the bottom of the sea. This is a weird vegetable rather than a bizarre fruit but when I came across the image I just couldn’t resist adding it to the list. Some people call it a Roman cauliflower, some people call it Romanesco broccoli and some people call it the strangest thing they have ever eaten.

Monstera Deliciosa

This thing has the best food name ever but what is it? It is a type of plant which grows in Mexico (see, I told you it was a good place for weird fruits). To eat it you need to cut it, at which point a horrible smell will appear in your life. You then wrap it in paper until the scales fall off. It tastes kind of like pineapple but don’t eat it without doing the previous steps to ripen it. If you eat it raw it can give you a sore throat, cause a rash or make your thumbs fall off. Actually, your thumbs won’t fall off; I just wanted to make sure you were taking the advice seriously.