What’s a Mangosteen?

I picked up the Sunday Newspaper with the ton of circulars announcing their weekly sales and I came across one of a supermarket advertising something I’ve never heard of.  It wasn’t only that I never heard of the product they were selling but they provided a picture as well, of this fruit so exotic looking that it intrigued me and I just had to find out what it was all about.  The picture was of a Mangosteen fruit. I hope to taste this forbidden fruit sometime soon.

According to an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES:  “Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, mangosteen trees require a highly tropical, humid climate, and they cannot be grown commercially in the contiguous United States, although a few determined enthusiasts have coddled them to fruiting in the warmest parts of Florida. Because fresh mangosteens can harbor insect pests, the Department of Agriculture prohibits their being brought from the main countries that grow them in Southeast Asia, or from Hawaii. (Mangosteens smuggled from Canada, where they are permitted because tropical pests cannot survive there, are occasionally sold in Chinatown.)” 

Also according to scientific research this fruit has a bunch of health benefits.   I hear it’s suppose to have a taste something between a strawberry and an orange.  And I can’t forget to mention it has  a rare reddish-purple skin.