New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- No fruit in the produce section oversells itself quite like dragon fruit. It sits there looking like something a designer invented-hot pink, leathery with flame-like green bracts, the kind of thing you pick up purely because you were intrigued by its looks. I remember doing exactly that the first time, turning it over in my hand, imagining that it would taste as dramatic as it looked. I cut it open with the excitement of tasting something like I'd never tasted before.

But it tasted like nothing. Or almost nothing. The flesh is either a pale white or a bold pink, faintly sweet in the way a cucumber might be sweet, way more demure than a kiwi, and rather disappointing for something that comes wrapped in that much attit...