Part two of this fruit saga continues the story of the Akebi, a mystery autumn-season fruit I recently discovered here in Japan.  See part one for more information.

Akebi at stores seem to have a variety of appearances.  I’ve seen them with brown skin as well as light and dark purple skin.  Either way, from the exterior they look like a fat and short version of a purple 茄子 nasu (Japanese eggplant).

akebi ripened and split open

Each day after I purchased the set of two akebi, I checked each to see if they had opened.  When they become appropriately ripe, the fruit splits by itself to expose the inner mass of gooey fruit and seeds.  One of the two ended up rotting before opening, while the other split on the bottom side before I knew it, so it was a good thing I checked it on it when I tossed the other one.

The fruit in the centre does not take up all the open space within the fruit.  It is a long strip of white goo in which large seeds are embedded.  I would describe the texture as like pomegranate due to the difficulty separating fruit from seed, but as others have described online the fruit doesn’t have much of a distinct taste other than general sweetness.  The large seeds are easier to spit out than pomegranate, and as I found you can suck the fruit off of them through your teeth to separate the two.  It’s not a perfect system, but it works deliciously.