mangosteen

To cut open a mangosteen, with a sharp paring knife, make a 1/3-inch deep horizontal cut around the middle and twist off one half of the shell, exposing the white, creamy flesh. If you're going knifeless, hold the mangosteen between your palms and squeeze your hands together to crush open the purple shells. Once the shells are cracked, you can easily peel them off. Mangosteens are often served half exposed to allow people to pick out the flesh with a small fork.

The two larger sections contain hard and bitter seeds that need to be spit out; the other five sections can be eaten whole. Two large sections out of seven aren’t too bad, though better mangosteens contain all smaller sections with but one large seed or none at all.