In yesterday's City Paper, Drew Lazor broke news of culinary pioneering yet again at Di Bruno Bros. The mangosteen, a rare fruit, has just been approved by the FDA for sale in the U.S. and Di Bruno Bros. is one of the few places selling it. Read below for the article or click here:
I was at Hung Vuong Supermarket the other day when I came across mangosteen juice — the can was plastered with these bouncy purple bulbs that looked like bloated cartoon grapes. It left me wondering: A) What the hell is a mangosteen? and B) Where can I get one? Turns out: A) It's a fleshy, aromatic fruit native to Southeast Asia, and B) Nowhere. That is, until now. The FDA recently lifted a ban on selling mangosteens Stateside (damn fruit flies), so Puerto Rican- and Thai-grown cases of the stuff are starting to surface on the East Coast. In the coming weeks, Di Bruno Bros. (1730 Chestnut St., 215-665-9220) will carry a very, very limited supply of the fruit, at an intriguing/slightly frightening price of $45 per pound (the average mangosteen weighs about a third of a pound). "It's sort of this mythical thing," says Di Bruno Specialty Team Leader Scott Case, who personally tracked down the shipment for the store. "They have an amazing reputation, but they can supposedly be finicky. But for anybody into culinary adventures, this is definitely something to check out." Unfortunately, I don't think my boss would let me write off "mythical fruit" as a business expense.
