"The mangosteen — a tropical fruit about the size of a tangerine, whose
leathery maroon shell surrounds moist, fragrant, snow-white segments of
ambrosial flesh — can't get a visa. Mangosteens may not legally be
imported into the United States. They may not legally be shipped to the
mainland from Hawaii, where a few sturdy souls have lately begun to grow
them anyway.
"Here in Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, notably Vietnam and
Singapore, people buy them by the bagful for small change. In Vancouver
and other Canadian cities with big Asian populations, you can find them
at street markets and greengrocers. In Paris, Fauchon will sell you one
for a prince's if not quite a king's ransom.
"But back home in Washington, the best I can do without jumping on a
plane is the wooden mangosteen, handsomely carved and oiled, that sits
on my desk there."