Breadfruit

The grocery store had a tasting of breadfruit a few weeks ago.  I overheard the produce manager telling one of the employees to take a few breadfruit to do a tasting.  Having never had the chance to try breadfruit, I was intrigued and hoped it would be out by the time I was done shopping.  The employee, an older thin woman, took a few breadfruit quarters wrapped in cellophane to the back.  Several more wrapped breadfruit quarters were on the shelf for a few dollars a pound.

Grocery shopping is an almost intimate task.  I grocery shop at the same place on almost every Saturday morning at nearly the same time.  Not unexpectedly, many of the same employees are working on Saturday mornings, I often see the "morning huddle" near the beer cave and shudder when I think of the horror that efficiency consultants have done.
I also often see the same shoppers on Saturday morning.  These are obviously people who have a similar Weekend ritual to mine.  There is the tubby man in scrubs who I presume is shopping after working at the local hospital.  If he gets there before I do he often buys all the reduced price deli pizzas.  There is the woman with short grey hair and glasses; we see each other so frequently that we often smile and say, "Good Morning."  There is the granola woman I see in the produce department, but nowhere else.  There is the guy that I've decided I probably hate, even though I've never talked with him.  I don't have a reason to dislike him, but I'll find one.  There  are many other nameless people I nod hello to or recognize when I see them.
The grocery store is also a very awkward place to have a conversation with someone.  On my most recent grocery shopping trip, I saw a woman I used to work with and we talked for quite some time about our respective jobs and oddly, guns.  As we parted ways, I was dreading the idea that we might now meet several more times through the aisles as we worked our way through the store.  There is no good social protocol for these situations.  Do we ignore each other?  Do we nod politely?  Do we try to continue the conversation.  Sometimes when I see people I know in the grocery store, I pretend I do not see them for this reason; if we run into each other later in an aisle, we can nod hello or talk without the awkwardness of the recent conversation that was appropriately ended.

I typically like the free trials that grocery stores put out.  I've never been to Costco, but I understand they often have many of these and I heard of one person at work who will go there, walk through the store and never buy anything, but use the free samples as an inexpensive lunch out.  I find this odd since he is a manager at a level significantly above me.  Free lunch meetings at work do nothing to entice me to come since food stability is not something I worry about.  I make enough to pay for my own lunch.

While I often try them, I also find the store free food trials a bit creepy sometimes.  The great unwashed masses, using the same plastic knife to dip into the same plastic container of crab dip shedding who-knows-what into the tepid frappe.   I'm glad the way I live my life has allowed me to develop a strong immune system - I sometimes go back for seconds.
"This stew's aweful good." -Delmar O'Donnell
"You think so?  I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday. I think it's startin' to turn." -Washington Hogwallop
I'm goin' to R-U-N-N O-F-T!

By the time I was nearly done grocery shopping, the older thin produce employee had returned from the back with a tray of cut-up breadfruit and a tin of toothpicks.  I meandered over and tried a cube.  It was terrible.  Stalky.  Woody.  Bland.  Difficult to chew and nearly impossible to swallow.  Despite copious chewing, it felt like it was permanently lodged in my throat.  A few of the woman's fellow employees were also trying to eat it with the same difficulties.  The display was very near the sushi stand and the two Asians who create the sushi came over.  I've long suspected they were not Japanese, but more likely Malaysian.  In broken English, they informed us ignorant fools that only a small yellow part of the fruit can be eaten.  I found this very odd since the fruit is very large and I believe it is a staple in Polynesian areas.  How can so much of a staple be inedible?  How can they sell this for a couple bucks a pound and only have 3% of it be edible?
I've since learned that breadfruit is supposed to be cooked and eaten more like a vegetable, often mashed.  Had the Malaysian Sushi Chefs had better English, they might have told us that.  Or, possibly they saw so much humor in our trying to eat it as we were that they couldn't stammer it out, and resorted to their own language.  We may have deserved it, the produce manager definitely did.  I doubt there was very much breadfruit sold as a result of the trial.

Breadfruit looks a lot like durain.  I've only seen durian in the crazy international grocery store around 25 miles from home.  I used to go there for their beer selection, but always walked through the produce section just to see what was there (and the seafood section as well).  I saw durian there many times.  Durian looks like it can slay other fruit and I've heard it smells like rotten onions or diseased feet.  I'm curious how something described so vile could taste good enough to eat, let alone enjoy.  I don't suspect that it will be used for many food trial displays.

I didn't buy breadfruit and have no inclination to.  Thankfully, the small amount I did try passed through unannounced, despite being eaten uncooked.  Fellow Saturday morning shoppers, I hope things are well.