I don’t know how many westerners can say they have ever tried to eat cactus, but my friends and i did. It’s a delicacy of Penghu island. You don’t eat the whole thing, don’t worry, but only the part that will turn into a flower. In Chinese it’s called 仙人掌 (xianrenzhang). You can have several desserts with this cactus fruit.
I tried the ice-cream, the granita and the pie. My favorite goes for the ice-cream, even though it would have been even better if the taste was a little stronger. Then the cactus pie was also nice but a little too jelly-like (it’s nearly like a mochi). Finally the granita was tasteless.