What is the proper way to eat kiwi fruit?

[Beruang]

Peeling is sticky and messy.

Biting the skin is an unsettling tactile experience.

I have taken to cutting them in half along the "equator," and scooping out the insides with a spoon. Minimal fuss, but I am told that I am missing all the vitamins in the skin.

Please advise. This is a matter of no small debate in the office.

[Mr Thin Skin]

Where's ChefTroy when you need him!

I've always scooped them myself. If I'm making a fruit salad, I cut them in half an use a spool to remove a hemisphere of fruit for slicing. Wasteful, but fairly fast. Try blanching one. Maybe they're like nettle, and the spines will disappear. Or maybe that'll loosen the skin for easier delamination.

If I'm missing vitamins by not eating a hairy ball, so be it.

[Strainger]

I'll eat the skins of potatoes, and even oranges, but the skin of a kiwi fruit? Bleah!

The way I prepare a kiwi:

1) Slice off the ends.
2) Slide a spoon through one of the cut off ends between the skin and the fruit. The spoon contour generally conforms pretty well to the contour of a kiwi. IIRC, a tablespoon works best.
3) Slide the spoon around the circumference of the fruit, peeling off the skin.
4) Enjoy your (peeled) kiwi!

What I've always wondered about is why some kiwis have two holes punched in the skin.

[DSYoungEsq]

What I've always wondered about is why some kiwis have two holes punched in the skin.
ROFL!

Now try dropping two Kiwi fruit on Jupiter. Which one hits first? ;)

[BunnyGirl]

Yum! Kiwi! My hubby eats the skin (feh!) but I peel 'em or cut 'em in 1/2 and eat them with a spoon.

You want messy? Try a mango. Got suck the leftover fruit off that big pit, your hands get all slimy, your face is sloppy, and there's lots of fruit stuck between your teeth, but OH! That's taste. Delish!

[Athena]

I'm also of the "cut it in half and scoop out with a spoon" club. However, I'm a latecomer. I used to always meticulously peel the damn things and slice them into bite size pieces. When I first saw someone eating them with a spoon, I was ecstatic. I started eating them that way, and made a remark to my husband soon afterwards about how much easier it was that way. His answer?

"I always ate them that way before I met you. I thought that you LIKED peeling 'em and cutting them up."

ARRGHGGHHGH!

[UncleBeer]

If you want to try something really messy, eat a pomegranate.

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One complete set of morals for sale to highest bidder, new in box.

[Doctor Jackson]

What is the proper way to eat kiwi fruit?

Not sure, buy I'd probably take him/her to dinner first.

Bada-bing-bada-boom

[Mazey]

Why cut the kiwi in half? I just cut a slice off one end, scoop with a spoon, and just ADORE these things.

Now, on the subject of pomegranates, I recently met an Iranian who explained the joys of eating that fruit. He spends a while squeezing and pressing the fruit to bring out all the juices, then bites a hole in the skin, tossing it away, and proceeds to eat away the insides, seeds and all! When I expressed astonishment, he stated the seeds provided an excellent source of fiber. I tried it, but just couldn't get past all those SEEDS!!!

Say, maybe I should've mentioned this on that constipation thread!!

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"There will always be somebody who's never read a book who'll know twice what you know." - D.Duchovny

[Harmonious Discord]

Anyone that eats Kiwi skins probaly eats the shells on sunflower seeds. Eddable yes, desirable no.

[Kat]

I don't eat kiwi, but my sisters do. My mother would peel and then cut the fruit into slices or cubes. When one sister got another kiwi-eater as a roomie at school, she was introduced to the "cut in half and scoop out with spoon" method, which is much easier and less messy according to her. However...the fruit and veggie guy on the radio insists the "correct" way is to eat it, unpeeled, like an apple (i.e. bite into the whole, unpeeled fruit).

I vote you eat it whichever way you want.

[pluto]

Sounds like what we really need is the nectarine version of kiwifruit. Any budding Luther Burbanks out there that need a senior project?



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"non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem"
-- William of Ockham

[Doobieous]

Ahh pluto, but there IS a hairless Kiwifruit. They are called "Hardy Kiwis" (Actinidia arguta). The skin is smooth, and you can eat them without feeling like youre swallowing a fur coat.They are native to northern China, Korea, Siberia and possibly Japan.

From the California Rare Fruit Growers (http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/hardy-kiwifruit.html) page:
Fruit: The fruit are generally green, fuzzless, and the size of grapes. Cut open, they look much like regular kiwifruit with its small black seeds, emerald green color, and typical rayed pattern. Although typically green in both the skin and flesh,some cultivars have various amount of red, either in the skin, flesh or both. Hardy kiwifruits are generally sweeter than regular kiwifruit.
Sugar levels vary, ranging from 14% (as with kiwifruit) up to 29%.

In a pinch if i have no utensils around i will eat the fruit skin and all. It's odd but hey you still get the fruit and a lot more fiber :). BTW: I do NOT eat sunflower seed shells. That's like eating wood chips.

[Omniscient]

I'm not an exotic fruit fan, but I wonder why you can't just use a potato peeler on them?

[matt_mcl]

I tried slicing kiwifruit into spears , grasping the end of a spear, putting it in my mouth, and yanking it through my teeth while my teeth carved out the inside, if you follow, but that made my teeth and the tip of my tongue sore.

I adore pomegranates. And I eat the seeds (I consider them an integral part of the taste.) Usually I score the skin, then turn the skin inside out. Never slice a pomegranate! It leaves a lovely stain all over that will fade to a delicate shade of violet, which now adorns the Samhain page of one of my first Wiccan books. (Pomegranates are traditional at Samhain.)

[BoBettie]

Mr. Thin Skin said:
If I'm missing vitamins by not eating a hairy ball, so be it.

Try telling my husband that! ::badum-bum!::

Seriously, folks..I cut them into fourths, peel with a knife and eat...mmmmmmm!

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Run for the hills, folks! Or you'll be up to your armpits in martians!

[Scarred]

Another bad habit I've passed on to my family: cut the kiwi in half, grasp by the end, and squeeze. Works with sweet potato, too.

[jayron 32]

WRT hairless Kiwis...

since a Kiwi is just a large, hairy gooseberry, you could just eat the standard non-hairy gooseberry...

BTW, kiwi=gooseberry just like Mahi Mahi=dolphinfish. I'm tired of inventing names for food just to make it more appealing. Well, c'est la vie...

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Jason R Remy

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate"
Warden in _Cool Hand Luke_

[Doobieous]

WRT hairless Kiwis...

since a Kiwi is just a large,hairy gooseberry, you could just eat the standard non-hairy gooseberry...

Well, you could, but since the Kiwi isn't a large Gooseberry, it's not the same. They're not even in the same family :). (Kiwi = Actinidiaceae, Gooseberries = Saxifragaceae).
Oh and a surefire way to annoy many master gardeners and quite a few serious gardeners is to use common names without using the Latin name ;). Common names are often misleading, as is the case with Jayron thinking kiwis and gooseberries are related :) (Just playing Jayron).

On a somewhat related note, in a gardening mailing list I am on, one of the New Zealander gardeners was lamenting (jokingly) that to New Zealanders, almost all flowers are either Daisies, or Lillies.


*Sigh* I wish a lot of ignorance about plants could be dispelled here. But alas, this isn't a gardening forum :).