Fruit

[liuzhou]

'In the market today, 青李 qīng lǐ or 'green plums'. Didn't buy any. They were rock hard and I'm not sure if they are very late or very early in terms of seasonality. Pretty though.

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

One of my neighbours (I don't know which) has lopped off a lump of banana tree and is leaving them in the communal area of our apartment blocks to ripen in the lovely sunshine we are experiencing. I took this photograph about an hour ago. They were there yesterday, too. She or he takes them in at night.

 

[ElsieD]

What will one person do with all those bananas?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, ElsieD said:

What will one person do with all those bananas?

 

Which will all ripen the same minute.

 

[heidih]

I have always been astounded by the fruit eating capacity and culture in my Vietnamese and Taiwanese friends. A big group sits around and enjoys a seasonal fruit and chats for a long time. 

[liuzhou]

8 hours ago, ElsieD said:

What will one person do with all those bananas?

 

As @heidih notes, people here get through astonishing amounts of fruit.

[suzilightning]

With John gone......fruit and veg!!!!!

 

I've been indulging in fruit salads made with grapes, tangerines and apples with a sweetish dressing of Greek yoghurt, honey and basil.

Also poaching pears in hibiscus and pomegranate then the next day cutting them in half and hollowing them out.  Filled with a mix of lactose free cream cheese whipped with some gorgonzola dolce.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

For the first time three nights ago I tried a Lady Alice apple.  I believe it may have been the finest apple I have eaten.  Sweet and crisp and tart with a lot of flavor.  Texture was perfect.

 

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

On 11/27/2018 at 7:16 PM, suzilightning said:

With John gone......fruit and veg!!!!!

 

I've been indulging in fruit salads made with grapes, tangerines and apples with a sweetish dressing of Greek yoghurt, honey and basil.

Also poaching pears in hibiscus and pomegranate then the next day cutting them in half and hollowing them out.  Filled with a mix of lactose free cream cheese whipped with some gorgonzola dolce. 

I am definitely trying this. I have a jug of jamaica (the hibiscus drink) in the fridge and a bottle of pomegranate molasses, plus cream cheese and gorgonzola--now all I need is the pears. That sounds like the perfect winter dessert. On  second thought, why not breakfast? Midnight snack?

[heidih]

I missed the jamaica poach. I keep dried in pantry.That would be so attractive and I can see the tart highlighting the pear and then smoother out by rich cheese.

[scubadoo97]

On November 26, 2018 at 10:38 AM, ElsieD said:

What will one person do with all those bananas?

 

 

I have several banana trees which produce a small variety of banana.   When I cut a stalk of bananas off I hang the stalk in the garage and pull them in as they ripen.   I'll eat some but will freeze the majority on a sheet pan then bag and store in the freezer

 

Frozen bananas puréed in the vitamix makes a darn good dessert.  It's like a soft serve banana ice cream 

[chromedome]

I do that periodically in the summertime, though I use my venerable Cuisinart. My Vitamix is the old-school variety with the stainless steel jar, and I find it needs help with anything thick/chunky.

[liuzhou]

I shuffled out mumbling into the frozen rain this morning to obtain any form of sustenance from the nearest store - fortunately a smallish supermarket.

 

Among their offerings, I noticed that they had several representatives of the citrus family. For example:

 

These were labelled "巴西柑 (bā xī gān)", which literally means "Brazil Tangerines", but they have little to do with Brazil. They are citrus sinensis and native to China. THat said Brazil does now grow more than anyone else, so perhaps that's why. These were grown in Hunan, the province to the north of us, though.

 

Next, we have 大红柑 (dà hóng gān) or large red tangerines.

 

and 宫柑 (gōng gān) or 'palace tangerines', so called because they were once reserved for sending as tribute to the emperors in the Imperial Palace (aka Forbidden City). Now, foreign plebs like me can eat them.

 

Next up:
 

蜜柑 (mì gān). Literally 'honey tangerine', but honey is often used just to mean 'sweet'.

 

Then the oranges.

Those are 砂糖橙 (shā táng chéng) which means 'sugar orange'. Again sugar is just used to mean 'sweet'.

 

脐橙 (qí chéng) or 'navel oranges'.

 

赣南甜橙 (gàn nán tián chéng), literally South Jiangxi (Province) Sweet Oranges

 

Then we have:

 

花皮金橘 (huā pí jīn jú) - 'flower skin kumquats'

 

and

 

西柚 xī yòu - 'grapefruit'

 

They also had four different kinds of pomelos, but the battery in my cell phone died. I'll photograph them tomorrow.

 

I find this an astonishing number of citrus fruits for a small neighbourhood supermarket to carry, but they were selling well. I bought the green-skinned ones at the top.
 

Edited December 9, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[ElsieD]

@liuzhou  Those citrus offerings put our major supermarkets to shame.

[liuzhou]

I just remembered. They had lemons, too. I bought a couple.

[liuzhou]

When  I got back to the supermarket, the number of pomelo types had risen from four to (almost) six.  One signposted variety had sold out.

 

Here are the remaining five:

 

沙田柚 (shā tián yòu). Citrus maxima ‘Shatian’. The most common pomelo.

 

容县沙田柚 (róng xiàn shā tián yòu). This is another 'Shatian' pomelo, but a highly prized one. It is from Rongxian County in southern Guangxi. The area is famed for its high quality (and high priced) pomelos.

 

福建蜜柚 (fú jiàn mì yòu), Fujian Honey Pomelo, a sweet and again prized  example from Fujian Province in SE China.

 

Then two together in one pile. 红肉柚 (hóng ròu yòu), red fleshed pomelo (in the red wrappers) and 水蜜柚 (shuǐ mì yòu) or 'juicy, sweet pomelo).

 

Next to them was an empty display marked 三江柚 (sān jiāng yòu) or Sanjiang pomelos, Sanjiang being a nearby county. They are usually very good, and being local means that they are often the cheapest, which may explain why they had gone so quickly.

 

[liuzhou]

They also had these 融安金橘 (róng ān jīn jú),  locally grown kumquats from Rong'an County, just north of Liuzhou city.

 

[heidih]

My citrus including kumquats is all green.Should be  December/January ripe but global trends...

[heidih]

I traded cookies for calamansi yesterday. My friend's 2 trees are loaded. Forgot phone so no shot of trees.

[ElsieD]

33 minutes ago, heidih said:

I traded cookies for calamansi yesterday. My friend's 2 trees are loaded. Forgot phone so no shot of trees.

 

I'm jealous.

[kayb]

4 hours ago, heidih said:

I traded cookies for calamansi yesterday. My friend's 2 trees are loaded. Forgot phone so no shot of trees.

 

I read this "calamari" at first, and thought it was the oddest looking such I'd ever seen....

[FauxPas]

it's a lovely time of year for citrus here in southern AZ. We have a few of our own trees but they are small (we had to replace some previous ones) and not producing too much right now, so we take advantage of it when neighbours are sharing their bounty. Most recently we were gifted with several big bags of fruit, mostly a tangerine hybrid and also some kind of navel orange. We'll eat some of the navels as they are, but the tangerines make such a lovely juice and we can freeze some of that. 

 

This is my very inexpensive Black & Decker citrus juicer, which has been going strong for ten years. it's a bit noisy but it does the trick and I've used it on a lot of fruit! 

 

 

 

 

[Toliver]

On 12/29/2018 at 9:35 AM, FauxPas said:

This is my very inexpensive Black & Decker citrus juicer, which has been going strong for ten years. it's a bit noisy but it does the trick and I've used it on a lot of fruit! 

Have you heard Ina Garten's juicer on her Food Network TV series? As loud as a cement truck at full rotation. And you just know it has to be one of those expensive ones so why is it so noisy?

So you're in good company.

And I am envious of your tangerine juice...it looks wonderful. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My Hamilton Beach Commercial makes no noise.

 

[lindag]

48 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Have you heard Ina Garten's juicer on her Food Network TV series? As loud as a cement truck at full rotation. And you just know it has to be one of those expensive ones so why is it so noisy?

So you're in good company.

And I am envious of your tangerine juice...it looks wonderful. 

Actually I bought that juicer because I watched Ms Garten use it.  And, yes, it is quite noisy but very efficient and space saving.  I also have the big-ass Breville juicer which is very nice but a space hog.  I use my little Braun most of the time since it stores so easily.

BTW, that Braun was dirt cheap but I don't think it's available any longer.