Red Pomelo?

[DIna00]

Have you ever heard of a Red Pomelo?

My experience with pomelo is limited to one excellent asian market I go to in another city, where they have the largest pomelos I've ever seen for 3.00. The pomelo is always somewhat dry (as opposed to juicy), and tastes like a very mellow grapefruit on steroids, with only a very mild citrus sweetness. We love them.

The other day I saw pomelos for the first time ever in my town! They were a little small and puny, but they were only 1.99 so I bought two. I opened one yesterday and it was just a red grapefruit! I was so angry to pay 1.99 for a slightly oversized grapefruit. But then I checked the sticker and it did indeed say "red pomelo". However I still feel uncertain because it 100% tasted and looked like pink grapefruit.

What is your experience with Pomelo?

 

[Food4thought]

I never heard of this fruit before. I have eaten pink grapefruit but never one that was red. If a red pomelo is a citrus fruit similar to grapefruit. I wonder how dry it can be, as opposed to juicy.

I've just looked at some pictures online and it does look as though it would be good to eat. Search results also show that it can be eaten on its own or used in stir fries, smoothies and salads. I shall look out for it now.

 

[DIna00]

If you ever see a pomelo you must buy it and try it, they are so hard to find where I live. It's dryness is what gives it's mild taste I think, it is like an oversized segment of grapefruit, think how in the very corners of a grapefruit can be dry, well the whole pomelo is like that.

To experiment I did go buy a pink grapefruit the other day and I was wrong, it's not the same, so yes indeed I have learned there are plain and now red pomelos!

 

[Night Train]

The other day I saw pomelos for the first time ever in my town! They were a little small and puny, but they were only 1.99 so I bought two. I opened one yesterday and it was just a red grapefruit! I was so angry to pay 1.99 for a slightly oversized grapefruit. But then I checked the sticker and it did indeed say "red pomelo". However I still feel uncertain because it 100% tasted and looked like pink grapefruit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomelo

Recently the word "pomelo" has become the more common name, although "pomelo" has historically been used for grapefruit. (The 1973 printing of the American Heritage Dictionary for example gives grapefruit as the only meaning of "pomelo".)

Maybe what you bought really was correctly labelled as a red grapefruit.

The two varieties are a sweet kind, which has white flesh, and a sour kind, which has pinkish flesh and is more likely to be used as an altar decoration than actually eaten.

If it really was a red pomelo and not a grapefruit then perhaps you shouldn't have eaten it.

The pomelo is one of the four original citrus species, from which the rest of cultivated citrus hybridized. Specially the common orange and the grapefruit are assumed to be natural occurring hybrids between the pomelo and the mandarin, of which the pomelo provided the bigger size and firmness.

The 'Daddy' of all citrus fruit!

I love eating pomelos.

 

[DIna00]

Thanks, that is some excellent information Night Train! I did read more about it too, and never knew they were what grapefruit was hybrid from, I would have thought it was the other way around.

I'm not sure about the info on Red pomelos being inedible though. I did go back and buy both the alleged red pomelo and some pick grapefruit. After eating the red pomelo, it is more the pink grapefruit that tastes inedible! The grapefruit is so extremely sour and juicy compared to the pomelo, after having them together I see there is a huge difference between the two, and the pomelo comes out on top! It is only slightly sour and again, much drier than any other citrus I've had.

It certainly is interesting that these pomelos are so hard to find, considering they are some of the original citrus!

 

[Arch]

It certainly is interesting that these pomelos are so hard to find, considering they are some of the original citrus!

I guess like with many things, people want the 'mucked about' with version because it's supposedly 'improved'. Here in the UK, we're starting to realise the value of the old and wild varieties of our common modern fruit and veg, maybe that's happening with pomeloes, which are becoming more common. I'd never heard of them before I met Night Train - his parents were getting them from Chinese supermarkets, but now they (pomeloes, not NT's parents ) are available in ordinary supermarkets and green grocers

 

[tipoywizard]

We have a lot a Red Pomelos here in the Philippines especially in the Davao Region. They are very sweet and healthy ( an excellent source of vitamin c). They are exported to other countries around the world.