Until recently, I always thought the raspberry reigned supreme in fruits. They’re tiny, a vibrant pinkish red and, despite being a bit hairy, full of juicy deliciousness. Summer could never come soon enough for this berry’s ripening and I was convinced there was no better fruit out there.

Then I got to Southeast Asia and encountered this funny looking thing called a mangosteen.

When I rave about the mangosteen to people back home, their usual response is something along the lines of “What the hell is a mangosteen?” Well, since you asked: it is the Queen of all fruits, for starters. On the outside, the fruit looks like a tough plum with a funny green cap on the top. Twist or cut off the top, however, to reveal what looks like juicy garlic cloves just waiting to be devoured on the inside. The flavors of the mangosteen are unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. It’s a cross between mango, papaya, tangerine and peach; it’s sweet, it’s tangy, it’s soft and in fewer words, it’s heavenly.

I can’t remember when exactly I first tried my new most favorite of fruits (the mango has also surpassed raspberries, putting those measly berries in the third place position), but I do know that the fresh produce drawer of my refrigerator in Bangkok has not been without them ever since. For me, mangosteens — and almost every other Thai food — are reason enough to return to Thailand in the not-so-distant future. Every few days, I look forward to the blare of garbled Thai over a megaphone from the Mangosteen Man’s truck driving down my soi. It’s almost as if he’s letting me know personally that his pickup truck — devoted entirely to selling the succulent Southeast Asian fruit at just 28 baht per kilo — has arrived. As I scoop up kilo after kilo of the purple fruit, Mangosteen Man has learned to just shake his head and laugh at my obsession as I say in my broken Thai, alloy mahk mahk, or “very delicious.”

In most regions, and especially in the United States, the mangosteen is somewhat of a forbidden fruit. Native to Southeast Asia, mangosteen trees require a highly tropical and humid climate and cannot be grown in the United States. In addition, because of the Southeast Asian fruit fly, the Department of Agriculture prohibits their import from the main Southeast Asian countries that grow them, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which has over 115,000 acres of mangosteen trees.

Sadly, when I leave Southeast Asia on Friday, my star-crossed love affair with mangosteens will be forced to come to a heartbreaking end before it could even really begin.