Monday, May 31, 2010

Summer fruit

I'ts interesting to watch the changing of seasonal fruits as seen on the hand, bicycle and motorbike carts of the street vendors.

The pineapples that were so plentiful seem to be getting harder to find lately; I'm hoping that this is because of the greater variety of fruits available rather than because the season is over, as the small sweet pineapples here are one of my favorites.

Strawberries came and went so quickly I only got them once. Being from California, where strawberries are in season for 8 months, I didn't realize the season would be so short. The strawberries here are smaller, sweeter, more fragrant, and in shape more like a wild strawberry (sort of ovoid and lumpy instead of triangular).

After the strawberries came coconuts, then melons in many unfamiliar shapes, sizes and colors. Most of the pineapple-on-a-stick vendors now have melon in addition to pineapple. Yesterday I got a chunk of a small, white-fleshed, incredibly sweet melon. Uncut, it is about the size, shape and color of a large yellow grapefruit. From searching the web, I think it might be a Canary melon.

Appearing this week on hand carts I saw mulberries (not in little baskets as you would expect in the west, rather just piled in the cart), some vendors have white (sort of greenish) and light colored ones, and other vendors have ones that are dark like blackberries. For those who don't know what a mulberry is, the fruit looks a lot like a blackberry but grows on a tree, and has a milder flavor.

Also appearing on hand carts were apricots, but they were so small I thought they would not be sweet. A few weeks ago I bought a huge bag of white nectarines (miscommunication, didn't really want so many!), and they were sooooo sour, even after letting them ripen. Some fruits really need to ripen on the tree to taste their best.

Today at the store, I bought a dragonfruit (wikipedia article, octoviana article), a bizarre-looking fruit which I have seen whole and cut open and have been curious about. According to the first article, it comes from a cactus. Two of my colleagues said that they taste good. I will post an update here in this entry once I taste it.

For those of you who are wondering about my health, today was the last day of antibiotic and I'm still blowing my nose and coughing. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a cold is on its way out or still going, I will reserve judgement until tomorrow. Trying to save up my rest today and tomorrow, because there will be extra-long work hours this week too due to some promotional classes and the Children's Day party.

5 comments:

  1. I think I know this melon... We call them honeymelon. Verry tasty :-D
    And I'm sure I did taste the dragonfuit, but can't remember how it did taste... Possible I wasn't sooo excited about it ;-)
    Still preferring a sweet mangoo :-D

    I hope you will become healthy soon!!!!!! And eat some more fruits ;-)
    Maybe some sour, because we have a saying: Sour makes funny...

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  2. Hello Obee, I think you are right about the melon, I found this on the web:
    -------------------------------
    Honigmelone ist die deutsche Bezeichnung für die französische „Gelbe Kanarische“, die viele Jahre in Südfrankreich und Algerien angebaut und ins Ausland exportiert wurde.

    http://www.chiquita.ch/ch/de/products/fruit/honeydew-melons-2.html
    -------------------------------

    I will stay home and eat fruit all day today, I promise.

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  3. I have had that melon before but cannot remember what name the store had on it. I will look for it again now. It was very tasty but expensive and I had bought it as a treat.

    Keep eating that fruit! That much vitamin C has got to whack any germs out of your system eventually.

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  4. Oh wow... Thank you Mary, I didn't know that!!

    And DMom, I agree with you ^_^

    Vitamin C rocks :-D


    Greetings,
    Obee

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  5. Hi Dmom and Obee, it's easy to keep on the fruit because in this hot weather it's the only thing that appeals.

    Ate the dragonfruit yesterday, it has the texture exactly like a kiwifruit, including the little black seeds, but the flavor is different, pretty mild flavored.

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