Thanks to the Kahuku Land Farms Fruit Stand in Hawaii, I’ve officially hit 100 fruits. Milestone! Bam.

I told Mike, our trip lead, how close I was to being centufruitarian, and he went out of his way to find new fruits to try. Thanks to Mike, and the rest of the Hawaii Five Oh team for being so patient and enthusiastic with my quest.

These are the fruits that pushed us past the 100 mark:

No. 99 Cherry Guava

There’s something about bite-sized fruit that just makes me happier. Snacks!

Cherry guavas are such a pretty color, like a sunset. They’re tangy, and the round seeds have a pleasant pop to them when you crunch down.

No. 100! Chico

When I asked the woman at the market what Chicos tasted like, she said, “brown sugar.” She had a bit of an accent, so I thought I’d misunderstood her.

She was exactly right. They’re soft inside, the dominant flavor is brown sugar, and they even seem to have little crunch granules in the flesh.

It was like eating a baked apple plucked directly from the tree.

No. 101 Apple Bananas
No. 102 Ice Cream Bananas

More tiny snack fruits, hooray! These bananas are about as big as my palm, maybe a third of the size of a banana you’d find at the grocery store, and much, much tastier.

The ice cream banana is light and creamy, apt! The apple banana has a pleasant tartness that offsets the sweetness.

Both were fun to eat because you can shove the whole thing in your mouth, and then walk around beating your chest like King Kong. Which I recommend.

No. 103 Mountain Apples

These are a lot like Jamaican Apples, only smaller and tangier.

And this is an Edvard Munch Mountain Apple. Scream all you want, apple.

They’re less dense than a conventional apple, the crunch is more like a really crisp, seedless cucumber. Mmm. Quenchy.

This Friday, we’ll celebrate the century mark with a roundup of my top ten favorite fruits so far. You cannot wait. Fruit nerds, unite!

Can’t you almost smell that color?

When I first saw a Mountain Rose Apple, my breath caught. It reminded me of a professor who said that one of the Impressionist painters — I think it was Matisse — brought an apple as a gift when he visited friends. And that’s exactly what these apples are, tokens of affection. The best way to bring something simple and sweet to someone you love.

Taste 1,000 fruits is part of my ongoing Life List project. If you’d like to make a Life List of your own, start with these 10 tips or this exercise.

I recently read a blurb about deep fried butter in The Week and kind of didn’t believe it. Oh, America. Apparently it tastes like a very well buttered biscuit with a slight aftertaste of death. Has anyone tried this?

Balakian Spice Zee Plum Nectarines taste… like nectarines.

Jamaican Apples are delicious. They’re crisp like conventional North American apples, but have a much lighter texture — like a less-dense Asian pear.

The best ones are deep red with skin that gives a bit when you press it. They’re thirst quenching, and they’d make an excellent palate cleanser.

You can eat the whole thing except the pit, which is pretty large. I had something very similar in Costa Rica when I was 15. Ticos call them Manzanas de Agua, or water apples, and the ones I had were pale pink with no pit to speak of — it was neat to have that memory flood back when I bit into the Jamaican Apple.

These are Guineps, which I’d tried in Puerto Rico recently, but couldn’t figure out the name. They taste like citrusy peaches. There were a few Puerto Rican natives on trip who called them Quenepas.

You smash or bite the outer shell, which cracks open to reveal a jelly-like fruit inside with a large pit. You suck the fruit away from the pit, and the texture is a little like slimy algae. Much of the fruit pulp will stay on the pit. I’d love to freeze a bunch and use them as ice cubes in a tropical drink. So pretty.

I didn’t get a shot of the entire Breadfruit because they served it roasted as part of our meal at Scotchies. Roasted breadfruit tastes a lot like a potato, with a creamier texture more like a yam. It’s good with salt and butter.

This is O’Neil from the Jamaican Dogsled Team crew (more on that later). He’s one of my new favorite people. While we waited for our dogsled ride, he pointed out a huge pile of fly-covered, horse-gnawed Jamaican almonds.

They’d fallen from a tree on the property, and he shook each one until he found one that rattled, which is an indication that the almond is ripe.

Then he cut away the hull by using a rock to hit the back of his knife, and offered us each a taste. It tasted like almond, with a hint of horse saliva.

Apriums are a cross between an apricot and a plum developed in the 1980s. They’re like apricots with the slightly more dense flesh of a plum. Yum.

I think they’d be amazing frozen and blended in a cocktail.

Meg and Rahul had us over for dinner last night, and we had Humphry Slocombe’s Secret Breakfast Ice Cream for dessert. It’s bourbon with cornflakes, and yes. Yes to that.

As of last night, I’ve tasted 24 things on 7×7’s Big Eat list, and I recommend doing this if you live in the area. I’m learning so much about food.

Dear Greek Yogurt,

You smell great. Have I told you that? Man, you smell great. Whoa. I think I might still be a little tipsy from last night.

Anyway, let’s be straight. It’s not like the girls haven’t told me about you. I mean, you’ve been around, and I’m not an idiot. The bass player, the bartender, the Greek Yogurt, your exploits have become cliché.

So let’s not pretend here, Greek Yogurt. I know you’re all about waking up with a girl every morning (as long as she’s in Greece), and then dropping off the face of the earth the minute her plane lands back home. And whatever, it’s none of my business. I’m on vacation, and here you are.

And here I am.

Why don’t you throw an arm around me, and we’ll hit the beach? You are so soft. Seriously, what is that? It’s unreal.

-M

I’m in Greece because Intel is sponsoring my Mighty Life List. I’m bringing them back some yogurt.