One of the greatest food articles of all time was published in the New Yorker magazine, August 19 2002. The Fruit Detective by John Seabrook told the story of the eccentric David Karp whose job is to range around the country and the world and find exotic fruits, or uncommon varieties of common fruits.
The story is a classic mix of dry humour and genuine enthusiasm for the subject. Read it and enjoy.
Karp revealed more of himself in an interview with the Smithsonian:
As a leading fruit expert, you've tasted all kind of fruits that few laypeople have even heard of. What's your favorite fruit?
I'm constantly asked this: the greengage plum. It's related to prune plums and it originated in or around the Caucasus Mountains. It's incredibly high in sugar but has good counterbalancing acidity and really intense aromatics. It's an atom bomb of flavor. We had a tree in our yard when I was a kid. It didn't produce fruit very often, but when we did get fruit it was just delicious, and I've been obsessed with finding them again here in the United States. They're a fruit that could and should be grown in the United States and I'm convinced that they will be.
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You often wear a pith helmet—is it to protect your head from falling fruit, or just for style's sake?
I like to protect myself from the sun, because I've got a lot of exposed coastline, if you know what I mean. And also when you're around fruit trees all the time there are tree limbs that you can bonk into. Plus it's sort of a trademark of mine.
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