I've never seen ice cream bean, black sapote, wood apple sold in stores in SoCal. Atemoya can be bought easily in Vietnamese markets in Orange County when they're in season. I saw a lot of atemoyas (along with longan, rambutan, jackfruit, sapodilla, mangosteen, when I was there about 3 weeks ago.

Wow
you are lucky to live in Ca.
The closest thing i can find in a local store to a tropical fruit is orange.
Well, ive seen papaya once or twice, but they dont even know how to grow them

I'm going to guess that stores don't have a way to get fruit from collectors and few if any commercial growers can justify rare fruits. I see most cool fruit at farmer's and flea markets where small or hobbyist growers go.

One place you can get exposed to fruits are at local meet and greet type get together affairs or rare fruit organizations.

This post was edited by gnappi on Sat, May 24, 14 at 20:38

Try black bead or they are also called white tamarind, they are some weird bean shaped fruits.