Anyone up for a dinosaur egg?

Alas, all the dinosaurs are gone, but you can pretend a little bit with a noina.

Non-Thais may know the noina as a custard apple. It was something I had heard of but never encountered.

Custard apple. Mmmm, sounds delicious, right? I always pictured something tasting exactly like custard and looking like an apple.

I was certainly way off on the last part. It is a little bigger then an apple and covered in warty, bumpy plating. Where the fruit was very ripe underneath, some of the scales were starting to split and separate.

Cutting the fruit open revealed pale yellow innards liberally set with seeds.

I tentatively dipped in with a spoon, and was both relieved and disappointed. Relieved because it was slightly creamy, moist and sweet, disappointed because I didn’t think it really tasted of custard.

It has a slight graininess which reminded me of an apple, and a vague sort of vanilla banana hint. It was a bit of fiddle to eat with all the pips, but nonetheless enjoyable.