I really love noni, it's one of my favorite trees in the garden as it also looks ornamental, attracts millions of bees, and I eat the raw fruit on an avocado toast and make fermented juice (the easiest fermentation ever). Before going vegan, I really loved the most stinky cheeses, especially French ones, and I guess the love of certain type of flavors made me prepared for this weird fruit. As they say, it's an acquired taste, so I acquired this taste way before trying noni, I generally love bold tastes and fermented foods. Whether you're ready for it or not it's worth trying either way in my opinion
but if after trying you think raw fruit is too strong, try the fermented juice as the stank goes away completely, it starts smelling fruity and somewhat sweet after fermenting in full sun for several weeks. All you need is a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid, no need for any starter or microbe "food" like you would with kombucha or pickles (sugar and salt respectively), just stuff the jar with ripe fruit and keep in the sun. Eventually the fruit will "cry" and shrivel, and the juice will brown and sweeten.
Also, I noticed that raw noni seeds don't sprout easily, but the ones that underwent fermentation sprout very well.
I heard from Asian friends that noni leaves are good in curries, never tried them because they're a little tough, but I guess you can choose very young leaves.
As for the photo in the thread, it's a little underdeveloped, probably a young tree, and will ripen unevenly. The tree produces those at the very beginning of fruiting season, too. When the tree becomes more established, the fruit will be longer, larger and will ripen evenly. Don't pick the fruit if it still has green in it, it won't ripen evenly. When it turns completely white it's ready and will ripen in a day or two on the counter.
Yum.
