Prickly Pear

11/03/09 - My only knowledge of prickly pears comes from Balu's song in the Jungle Book and he only mentions them in passing. So when one of the teachers I work with brought some fruit in for me to try and told me one was a Cactus Pear I didn't think twice­. Only later did I make the connection.
Prickly pears grow on the Prickly Pear Cactus and outside of grocery stores have needles just like the cactus. There are none of those cacti growing around here, so the one I had was no longer prickly.
The outside is nothing special, but the inside is very pretty to look at. My pear had a bright pink/purple hue best described as magenta. I have no idea how to eat a fruit like this. I cut it open and took slices. In hindsight I would have halved it and spooned out the flesh. However, since a prickly pear tastes like eating a mixture of sugar, sand, water and rocks, I'll never get the chance. I plan on never entering a desert for the rest of my life just to avoid the possibility I may get lost and have to live on a prickly pear diet.
VERDICT: Gross

picture borrowed from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Prickly_pear_CDC.jpg