Strange fruit: Pyramid watermelons to foot-shaped potatoes

If you think the stinky durian is the weirdest fruit you’ll find in Asia, you clearly haven't seen Japan’s square and pyramid-shaped watermelons. Or the more random individual freaks of nature, such as the famed Mickey Mouse tomato. Presenting Asia’s most peculiar produce.

Japan: Clever watermelons

Square watermelons -- produced by growing the fruit in glass boxes -- are convenient to pack and store in tiny Japanese kitchens. But gift melons shaped like hearts, pyramids, and Homer Simpsons’ face are pure ridiculousness. Especially when each retails for ¥80,000 or more.

 

 

 

 

 

China: “Rolls-Royce apples” with fortune character designs

Decorative apples are popular Chinese gifts because the word for the fruit (pingguo) sounds like ping’an, or peace. Farmers put stickers on young apples and remove them at maturity, leaving behind fortune characters or lucky dog designs. In Beijing and Dalian, these 'Rolls-Royce apples' sell for more than US$100.

 

 

 

 

 

Korea: Hand-shaped daikon

Japanese and Korean women dread 'daikon legs,' or limbs shaped like a bloated radish. But what about daikon hands? A Korean farmer unearthed a specimen shaped like a monstrous hand. The root commonly splits into two or three prongs, but five is a rarity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

China: Foot-shaped potato

The Most Adorable Tuber award goes to a four-toed, foot-like potato from Weihai, Shandong Province. The vegetable was deemed propitious enough to be featured in the local news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

China: Mickey Mouse tomato

Uncommonly imaginative Chen Guoping bought this tomato from a market in Dongzhuangqiao village, Zhejiang, because he thought it looked like Mickey Mouse’s head. Word of the discovery spread and soon strangers flooded his porch, asking if they could pose with the funny tomato.