Mangosteens are enjoying a fashionable popularity, though their availability here is scarcely new. The first mangosteens were brought back from Southeast Asia as long ago as the sixteenth century, the name coming from the Malay. The fruit is round, with a reddish brown skin. Inside is a pink pith containing six segments of white-fleshed fruit, which is what you eat. The flavour is unique, so the only way you are going to find out what it tastes like is to eat one.
