Where to buy mangosteens in USA?
 

Just returned from a trip to Sri Lanka and fell in love with mangosteens!

For those who don't know what a mangosteen is, it's a fruit that looks like a purple beefsteak tomato. Inside, it has 4-5 sections of fruit that look like a white orange. The sections have the consistency of a perfectly ripened peach and are sweet as sugar.

Has anyone tried to buy them in the US? Do you think I could find them at my local asian market? If you have found them, were they outrageously expensive? (They were about $0.20 each in Sri Lanka - cheap by US standards, but expensive by Sri Lankan standards).

You can find there in California at 99 Ranch markets certain time of the year.

I have seen them for sale in Chinatown, and maybe a few scattered furit vendors here in NYC.

From this story at Village Voice (via SepiaMutiny), apparently mangoosteens are banned in America. But it looks like they can be found in Toronto's Chinatown...

But they are pretty good, aren't they? :-)

Thanks for the info. Sorry to hear they are banned in the US. Maybe I will have to make a MR to Canada.

On a side note, I was in Sri Lanka to build a house for a family who lost their home in the tsunami. We brought fruit to the dedication ceremony as our contribution to the celebration. The entire community went right for the mangosteens. A few of us even saw a grandma carying her 1 month grandaughter. The grandmother was sticking the mangosteens under the baby blanket to bring home for later. :p

IIRC, there was an article in Gourmet magazine a while back saying that people have started growing mangosteens on the Big Island, and that you can buy them at farmers' markets there in season. However, they're not being shipped to the mainland yet.

Gradvmedusa, you've seen them in NY Chinatown? I go produce shopping there all the time but have never run into mangosteens, and from what I've read about them they're the sort of thing that, if people have them, they hide for their regulars. Any particular vendors?

From another mangosteen craving person!
 

We bought fresh mangosteens from roadside stands on the road between Waimea and Hilo on the Big Island in June 2004. They were cheap good and readily availble. They also had rambutans.

We have smuggled fresh mangosteens across from Vancouver BC pre 9/11. You can buy them at the large Asian Grocery/superstore in South Vancouver.

My vote is legalize the mangosteen now! :mad:

I was actually running the Maui Marathon and one of the drinks that they were selling at the expo beforehand was Mangosteen Juice. It was produced by a company called Xango...www.xango.net is their address...
If I recall, it was pretty expensive...

Looks like this place sell it. I have no idea it's banned here. Why?
http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/10660...angosteen.html

Fell in love with this wonderful fruit when I lived in Jakarta. In Bahasa it's called (phonetic spelling) mahn-geese. Yum! I have only found them in canned from in the States. :(

I swear I saw them, near the grand st. subway station. I was walking by and didn't stop to look, I had them in Bali and I thought they were the same thing, and the sign said Mangosteens. I could be wrong though. I didn't know they were banned.

Well, if they said mangosteens they probably were... I'll have to keep a closer eye out next summer! :cool:

I've heard stories of people trying to grown them in Hawaii...but I currently get my fix whenever I go to Vancouver. They are definitely contraband here in the US.

An amazing fruit!

From the Village Voice article linked above, it looks like they can harbor some pests. Those pests may be extremely harmful to US agriculture.

Saw you are from ATL, if this place does not have them you may be SOL in your town, this is a really good market, LOTS of variety http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/