I've had it. It's...okay.
I don't know..I didn't love it or hate it. It has a kind of apple-y or raw potato-y texture.
I had it in a stir-fry---maybe I would have liked it more prepared some other way.
It seems like it might be better in a salad, so I'd say go for it.
My question for you: what do hearts of palm taste like?  :)

Here, we get hearts of palm in cans, ready peeled. They're in a brine solution and taste faintly sourish. Mostly you eat them in salads. They have a nice texture and they peel apart into rings like an onion. I like them but they're a bit pricey for every day.  I have seen raw hearts of palm in the specialty market but a) they're expensive b) you have to peel them yourself. I have heard it said that if you don't get all the bark-layer off, they can be bitter. In Margorie Kinnon Rawlings' book "Cross Creek" she devotes a chapter to food and talks about cooking hearts of palm.
MKR wrote "The Yearling", in case she sounds familiar.

Yeah, I've cooked chayote maybe a half a dozen times, and I'm not impressed. If you need to sub it out in most recipes, I'd use a summer squash and just cook it for a much shorter period of time. (Although for your hearts of palm salad, I think I would use raw cucumber or raw jicama.) I think chayote is a lot like patty-pan squash, both in flavor and texture. And also its appeal-- neither are very appealing to me, but they're aren't awful either. Something about it though, it nevers get tender when you cook it (like a patty-pan), it just stays kind of firm and squeaky, if you can imagine. You know when you bite down on pattypan and it kind of squeaks between your teeth? Like that. Anyway, you can cut it in to strips and stir-fry it, or whatever, or you can stuff it with grains and whatnot, but meh. I'm not a huge fan.

I adore hearts of palm. Soooo much fiber and soooo low in calories-- if they weren't so expensive, I could eat an entire jar in one sitting!

From Cross Creek:

"The choyote is the shape of a blunt, enormous pear, pale jade-green in colour. Peeled, sliced, parboiled and tapered off au gratin in the oven with a dense cream sauce and a nicely caluclated quantity of grated cheese."  The paragraph follows raving about this dish.

For our purposes, that would be soy-based cream sauce and vegan cheese...but it sounds like taters au gratin.

I adore hearts of palm. Soooo much fiber and soooo low in calories-- if they weren't so expensive, I could eat an entire jar in one sitting!

I second that emotion!! (And if you get the song reference you're as old as I am!)  ;)

"If you feel like loving me, if you've got the notion, I second that emotion."  What does it mean if I am old enough to know that song but never heard of hearts of palm or chayote?  Hmmm.

Means you've been musically enriched but culinarily deprived, poor thing!  ;D :D ;)

Oh jeez - I go away for a few days and Amy Grant takes over the thread! :P

Anyway, per everyone's suggestion, I'm not going to run out and find me some chayote. Pear/potato combo eh? I bet an apple would be too sweet - jicama! That's a great suggestion sharway!

Amy Grant?? Perish the thought! N-no, no no. It came out in about 1953 courtesy of the Motown generation...can't remember the name of the soul group but it was definitely not Amy! (I love the story about how they got the idea for the song!)

Oh jeez - I go away for a few days and Amy Grant takes over the thread! :P

Anyway, per everyone's suggestion, I'm not going to run out and find me some chayote. Pear/potato combo eh? I bet an apple would be too sweet - jicama! That's a great suggestion sharway!

Amy Grant?? Perish the thought! N-no, no no. It came out in about 1953 courtesy of the Motown generation...can't remember the name of the soul group but it was definitely not Amy! (I love the story about how they got the idea for the song!)

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles