Then I hit the gua section. Or one of them.
瓜 - guā is one of those multi-purpose words of which Chinese has so many. It means "melon" but also "gourd". It covers everything from water melons through pumpkins to cucumbers etc. So for example, "bitter melon" isn't what we would normally call a melon, but a gourd treated as a vegetable.
So, there are two gua sections: one for what we usually consider to be fruits and another for those we consider to be vegetables.
Yesterday's haul of gua could have been any of these:
白玉瓜 bái yù guā - "White Jade Melon" - a type of muskmelon
木瓜 mù guā - "Papaya"
珍珠瓜 jiā jiā zhēn zhū guā - "Pearl Melon"
麒麟瓜 qí lín guā - "Unicorn Melon" - a prized strain of water melon.
西瓜 xī guā - regular "watermelon"
Rather alarmingly, these are described as 黑美人西瓜 hēi měi rén xī guā or "Black American (person) Watermelon". Racial stereotyping? Probably. The Chinese aren't noted for their lack of racism.
