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.
