Name: Pineapple pulling.
Appearance: Satisfying, easy, yum.
Age: Older than you think.
I didn’t think anything until you mentioned it just now. Is “pineapple pulling” like pulled pork? I suppose it is another food trend.
How does one pull a pineapple, exactly? Well, rather than slicing off the ends of the fruit, peeling it, coring it, and digging out all those seeds and tufts …
That’s what I always do. It’s very faffy. Yes, well, instead of that, you just slice off one end, pinch each cell from the outside and tear it upwards away from the core, giving you a neat bite of fresh pineapple, and a nice dry tuft to hold it with.
ZOMG! All hail the internet! I want a pineapple to pull right now. That’s the tricky part.
Why does there always have to be a tricky part? Because that’s life. It’s a tricky business. Pineapple pulling swept the globe on Friday, when a man called Dennis Naghizadeh tweeted a clip of someone doing it. Since then, many others have tried, few with much success.
You mean the internet is not reliable? I’m sorry to break it to you. Most pineapples seem to be too hard and dense to pull. There is some talk of needing a very ripe one, or softening it up first by rolling it, like a lime.
People roll limes? Absolutely. Do it before you cut one in half and it is much easier to juice. You can also put lemons in the microwave for a few seconds to achieve a similar result. Anyway, it turns out that there is an east Asian pineapple variety, known as the bogor or snack pineapple, which is ideal for pulling. Others, not so much.
So these failed pineapple pullers are not to blame? No. Everyone loves to try a fruit hack.
Like that lime thing? Exactly. Or the chop-and-twist method for removing avocado stones.
Chop down on it with a knife, then twist it out? Yup. Then there are mango hedgehogs.
Excuse me? Slice off the two flanks of a mango, skin and all. Score a grid into the flesh, turn them inside out, and hey presto! Mango hedgehogs.
Cool. My favourite is the trick for peeling kiwi fruit.
Yeah, that’s always a hassle. What’s the trick? Does it involve a teaspoon? No. Eat the skin as well.
What, that furry stuff? Yup. Some people love it, and it’s full of fibre.
Next you’ll be telling me there are two secret tabs that you can press into the ends of a box of kitchen foil to create an axle for the roll to spin on. Well, actually …
Do say: “Did you know that you can eat apple cores?”
Don’t say: “Yes. But I still don’t know why you would.”