ave you ever walked through Gelson's produce department and wondered about that funny-looking orange fruit with horns or that wrinkled purple egg? This month, join me on a virtual tour of our produce department so you can stop wondering about these strange veggies and fruits.

Chayote Squash

Part of the summer squash family, this mild vegetable tastes like a cross between a zucchini and a cucumber and looks like a pale-green clenched fist. Chayote rhymes with coyote and is popular in the South and Southwest. It contains one big edible seed that has an almond-like flavor. Gelson's only stocks small, young chayotes. Larger chayotes have a thick skin that needs to be peeled, but I recommend doing so after you cook them, since the raw vegetable contains an irritant just under its skin (it disappears with cooking). To cook chayote squash, sauté or steam them until they are fork-tender. When cool enough to handle, slip the skin off with a paring knife or vegetable peeler. Slice it lengthwise and remove the pit. Like other summer squash, chayotes go well with cheese. Half of a chayote has just 25 calories and 3 grams of fiber. Try my recipe for Summer Squash Sauté.

Cherimoya

I discovered cherimoyas while visiting India several years ago and they quickly became my favorite fruit. They look like a sealed artichoke from the outside, but their white custard-like flesh tastes like a mixture of banana, pineapple, papaya, mango, and vanilla. As you can imagine, no recipe would do it justice. All you have to do is cut a chilled cherimoya in half, use a spoon to remove the large black seeds (but suck the flesh off them first), and scoop out the rest of the fruit. Serve them well-chilled. A quarter of a cherimoya (about 5 ounces) has 125 calories, 4 grams of fiber and a good amount of vitamin C.

Enoki Mushrooms

These delicate mushrooms taste more like grapes than edible fungi and are best when used raw in salads. Enokis grow in clusters that look like spaghetti or sprouts. To use them, simply remove them from their plastic package and cut off the spongy base. If you must cook them, do so very briefly. An ounce of Enoki mushrooms contains just 10 calories. Mushrooms contain phytonutrients called polysaccharides that are believed to boost the immune system and fight cancer.

Ginger Root

Perhaps one of the most useful exotic foods in our produce department, ginger's unique flavor helps add zest to soups, sauces, stir-fries, fish, and meats. It has also been used for hundreds of years to help cure ailments ranging from nausea and vomiting to muscle aches and spasms. Ginger contains a phytonutrient called shogaols, which acts as a natural anti-inflammatory. This knobby-looking plant has tan skin that must be peeled off before use, to reveal a creamy yellow flesh. It has a peppery, sweet flavor and a spicy, pungent aroma. If you slice it into circles, it will lend its flavor only mildly to foods. If minced, the flavor will be stronger and more astringent, like in my recipe for Teriyaki Chicken Tenders (see Recipe Makeover). Dried ground ginger, like that used to make gingerbread, tastes very different from the fresh form, so the two are not interchangeable in recipes. Since ginger is used in such small quantities, even a relatively large portion has virtually no calories.

Heirloom Tomatoes

They're those gnarly-looking green, purple, pink, and gold tomatoes that crop up in the summertime. If you haven't tried them, you're missing out on the sweetest, most flavorful tomatoes of the year. Heirloom seeds are over 50 years old and have an unusual character that develops naturally, so expect to expand your definition of "beautiful" for these special berries. They will be soft, cracked, striped, spotted, and irregularly shaped. These are too good to cook with — just eat them raw in a salad like my Heirloom Tomato Salad. Half of a small heirloom (about 3 1/2 ounces) has about 21 calories and loads of vitamin C and lycopene.

Mâche

This is a type of lettuce that belongs to the chicory family, but it is not bitter like its relatives endive, radicchio, and escarole. It mainly grows wild near cornfields; hence it is also called corn salad and sometimes lamb's lettuce. The delicate little leaves grow in clusters and have a sweet and nutty flavor. It goes well with other mild greens as well as herbs, nuts, lemon, and cheese. One cup of mâche contains about 20 calories, 100% DV for vitamin A, 50% DV for vitamin C and 20% DV for iron.

Passion Fruit

Strangely enough, this fruit is ready to be eaten when it is almost black and really wrinkled. Like most of the other peculiar produce, the skin is not edible, so cut off one end and scoop out the yellowish gelatinous flesh and seeds. The flavor and aroma are intense. One passion fruit contains 140 calories, 15 grams of fiber, lots of vitamins A and C, as well as iron.

Fuyu Persimmon

Many people think they don't like persimmons, but that's usually because they haven't tried the vermilion crunchy sweet Fuyu Persimmons. The soft, jelly-like persimmons can have an unpleasant flavor and, if unripe, they can suck the moisture out of your tongue. These persimmons are different. They're more like an apple and can be eaten like one, but I prefer to cut them into wedges, peel off the skin, and cut out the large black seeds before I eat them. One Fuyu persimmon has about 100 calories, tons of vitamin C, some beta carotene, and potassium.

Plantains

Plantains are a long, fat variety of banana. Plantains and bananas are actually members of the berry family. You can purchase and eat them in various stages of ripeness, ranging from green to yellow to black. When green plantains are mostly starchy and savory tasting, like potatoes, and must be cooked. As they ripen to yellow and then black, the starch gets converted to sugar, and they become sweet. Plantains are traditionally fried, but they can be baked with good results. They can only be eaten raw in the black stage of ripeness. Like bananas, plantains are high in potassium and vitamin C, but they have a much higher beta carotene content. Half of a medium plantain (about 31/2 ounces) contains 110 calories and 2 grams of fiber.

I hope I've demystified some of these funky fruits and vegetables for you. If you're curious about how they taste, join me at your favorite Gelson's where I'll be giving produce tours and tastings throughout the month of July. Check my nutrition event calendar to see when I'll be where. Oh, and by the way, that orange horned melon is called a Kiwano — but it tastes very sour and, though nutritious, is probably best used for decoration.