robert Is Here is a much beloved fruit stand, market and petting zoo. That's right the holy trifecta of a Saturday afternoon.

The story behind Robert Is Here, located in Florida City (or as I've taken to describing the directions, at the end of US1, make a right at the drive-thru Starbucks and go straight till you hit it), is the simple tale of a young boy and a clever marketing scheme. A six year old Robert, who still mans the stand today, put up a sign to let people know that he was there selling fruit. The sign, predictably, read "Robert Is Here." And so it's stayed.

On a recent Sunday, Robert Is Here is packed. It's about 200 degrees outside, plus humidity, and there are still people squeezing in to fill their baskets with fresh mango salsa, tropical fruit like rabutans, sapote, mamoncillo and a couple varieties of mango, housemde dressings, sauces and jams and, the number one attraction, fresh fruit milkshakes. Rumor has it, the key lime strawberry shake is the must-have. Everything is labeled and the people working the counters totally know what's up. Don't be embarassed to ask a question like, "What the heck is this? What does it tase like and how do I open it?" They can slice it for you right then and there or send you home with instructions about when it will be ripe, how to serve it and where to store it.

I took home some spiny rambutans, described to me as pretty similar to a lychee, they look like they may come alive and bite you, spanish mamoncillos and dragonfruit. The mamoncillos (below right) were far and away the favorite in our taste test. While there's not much meat on the large seed, it's a delightful flavor that comes in one quick burst. The rambutan (below left) didn't taste like much, and what it did taste like, wan't really worth a repeat. The dragonfruit (above photo) is worth the buy just because it's so strange and beautiful looking. The thick pink and green exterior is shown up by the even more saturated pink seeded inside.

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I take fruit pretty seriously.

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patricia was there at robert is here in florida city