Fruit

[heidih]

Only fruit here are some Granny Smith apples - taart and crisp so I'll take a cue from @KennethT with the chili and salt

[paul o' vendange]

On 7/12/2021 at 9:48 PM, heidih said:

I had an interesting fruit thing today at mainstream grocery. They labeled rambutan as lychee. No produce manager around so I bit my tongue. There were no lychee around, They looked  pretty fresh though.

 

As a kid one summer vacation we houseboated around the Sacramento River Delta.  Large Asian community and lots of stores, from a very young memory.  First taste of lychee, but only dried.  What are the qualities of the fresh?

[heidih]

50 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

 

As a kid one summer vacation we houseboated around the Sacramento River Delta.  Large Asian community and lots of stores, from a very young memory.  First taste of lychee, but only dried.  What are the qualities of the fresh?

To me they have a juicy mildly sweet barely melonish flavor. We like them plucked from ice water and "popped" from skin on a hot day. Vaguely texture and ice cold as we enjoy loquats - though loquats are nice sun warmed from the tree.

[paul o' vendange]

4 hours ago, heidih said:

To me they have a juicy mildly sweet barely melonish flavor. We like them plucked from ice water and "popped" from skin on a hot day. Vaguely texture and ice cold as we enjoy loquats - though loquats are nice sun warmed from the tree.

 

That's a beautiful description.  Thanks.

[heidih]

14 minutes ago, paul o' vendange said:

 

That's a beautiful description.  Thanks.

Oh and son and I first had them from Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver eaten on a ferry!

Edited December 26, 2021 by heidih (log)

[ElsieD]

Picked these up at Costco yesterday.  They are called pineberries and look like anemic strawberries.  Ever had them?

Edited January 15, 2022 by ElsieD (log)

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Picked these up at Costco yesterday.  They are called pineberries and look like anemic strawberries.  Ever had them?

I just read about these the other day.  Cross between a pineapple and strawberry?  Interested to hear what you think.

[heidih]

7 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I just read about these the other day.  Cross between a pineapple and strawberry?  Interested to hear what you think.

Just a new strawberry variety. The name is cringeworthy. Excites me about as much as pink poinsettias. Lets see what our eGer has to say o taste.

[ElsieD]

@Shelby is right - they are supposed to taste like a cross between a pineapple and a strawberry, they have a faint strawberry smell, but taste of nothing.  They had the same texture as a ripe strawberry.  I did eat the big ones first and if the small ones taste better, I'll let you know.  This will not be a repeat purchase.

[kayb]

I put Honeycrisp and Granny Smith apples on my grocery order. Got the three honeycrisp. Instead of GS, I received one Gala, one Fuji and one Cosmic Crisp.

 

I think I’ll make chicken salad and chop up the Fuji in that.

[BeeZee]

Fuji with a touch of lemon juice should work well as Granny Smith alternate. Couple of months back I had bought some GS apples for a recipe and they were almost sweet. I prefer tart apples, but the Cosmic Crisp is pretty tasty.

[blue_dolphin]

I enjoyed reading a sweet little article by Tracy Wan in the NYT: Try New Fruit. The Weirder, the Better  Surely it's paywalled against non-subscribers.  Sorry for that but read it if you can. 

A quote:

Quote

Trying a new fruit expands my understanding of the world and enriches my experience within it. Just when I think I have a solid grasp on the spectrum of natural aromas, a fruit like the lulo (a nightshade that resembles a tomato and is known in Spanish as a “little orange” but tastes like neither) appears at my favorite cheese boutique and undermines the whole system. I bought a couple to make cocktails with — a common usage for the fruit in its native South America — and marveled at its remarkable redolence, which perfumed my whole kitchen for days. Part pineapple limeade, part rhubarb-flavored gummy, it’s a scent so neon I’d rather believe it was plucked from a food scientist’s imagination than accept that this unicorn fruit just happens to grow in some people’s backyards.

or two:

Quote

There’s a line in a Jack Gilbert poem that has inhabited a nook in my brain since I was a teenager. “What lasted is what the soul ate,” he wrote in “The Spirit and the Soul.” “The way a child knows the world by putting it/part by part into his mouth.” I think of these lines often when I prepare to eat a new fruit. Each tasting is a chance to be reunited with my inner child, to be rendered wide-eyed and wordless as I get to know it, part by part. Those tasked with naming these fruits appear to be equally under a spell, producing monikers as simplistic as they are charming. Cotton candy grapes. Ice cream bean. Dragonfruit. Tell me these names aren’t the work of a captivated 6-year-old.

I always figured those fruit names were designed to appeal to the 6-year-old inside each of us!  

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

it’s a scent so neon I’d rather....

 

 

That is baffling me. Neon is well-known to be odourless!

Edited February 23, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

We encountered tamarillo/tree tomato/tomate de árbol in Ecuador, where it was commonly juiced and served at breakfast. I didn't hear it named "lulo" or "little orange." We liked it so much that I bought some seeds ($$) but the plants never succeeded here. And surprisingly, I bought 2 fruits on a styrofoam tray, wrapped in plastic, at our local Safeway when we lived in Salida, CO. Totally unexpected.

[TdeV]

On 12/21/2021 at 9:59 PM, liuzhou said:

 

Nice dressing of the pineapple. Here is my somewhat battered (well-used), dedicated pineapple shucking implement as used by every pineapple vendor in my local markets. Cost about next to nothing, back in 1997.

 

 

Today they cost just over nothing.

I never tire of watching those vendors peel, de-eye and spiral cut those babies in seconds, over and over every day.

 

I just found this post. Could you please describe how you use this implement?

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

I'd be interested in this also. 

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

I just found this post. Could you please describe how you use this implement?

 

1 hour ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

I'd be interested in this also. 

 

Most fruit stalls in the markets here and across SE Asia sell their pineapples peeled and with the eyes removed using a spiral cut with the special knife.

 

 

 

The pineapples are first thinly peeled using a regular Chinese cleaver, removing the hard skin and any green but leaving the eyes in. The eyes form a spiral pattern around and down to the root end. The pineapple tool is used to remove a small amount of the fruit and the eyes.

 

It can be done with a regular paring knife as in the video below, but that is a slow process. The special tool allows for parallel cuts either side of the eyes and the blunt tip at the end scrapes away the debris. The woman in the video takes around 5 or more minutes to do her pineapple. The market vendors take less than a minute.

 

The knife also has a regular peeler on the reverse which is useful for any tidying up required.

It isn't pineapple season right now or I'd be able to photograph the technique which would probably be more useful than my explanation here. Maybe later!

 

 

I see that Walmart has a sort of similar tool on sale here.

Edited February 24, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[TdeV]

17 hours ago, liuzhou said:

It isn't pineapple season right now or I'd be able to photograph the technique

 

Thanks. I hope you remember to come back and show us how you use that tool. I'd like to see what the tool looks like from the side someday.

 

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, TdeV said:

I'd like to see what the tool looks like from the side someday.

 

 

Like this?

[TdeV]

Thank you. I want one of those!

[heidih]

Flashback - we got one in a Thai fruit/veg carving kit my mom ordered LONG ago pre internet. I put the tools they sent with my pumpkin carving tools (Halloween). No idea where they emded up but at least  know where i saw one

[liuzhou]

Spiral peeled pineapple. This one was in the supermarket today and had been peeled out of sight, so no pics of process, yet.

 

 

 

[KennethT]

This year, my local grocery store delivery company, Fresh Direct, started offering a few different types of mangoes.  I didn't buy all of them, but a selection to try:

 

 

The two on the left are "Champagne" mangoes (aka ataulfo) - these are very common around here - basically in every store.  They're relatively inexpensive - right now, FD had them 2 for $3 which isn't a great price, but not terrible either.  They will be destined for some kind of mango salsa or mango som tam later in the week.

 

In the middle is what they're calling an Indian Kesar mango - despite it being still greenish, it is soft.  It was $5

 

The two on the right are what they are calling "South Asian" mangoes - but they didn't have a name.  They're definitely not the Thai varieties Brahm Kai Meu or Nam Doc Mai.  They were $3.50 each, or 2 for $6.

 

I hope these will be good.  As much as I like to support farmers and buy mangoes directly from the farmers in Florida (they grow some really great varieties), it does become expensive, especially when you factor in the cost for shipping.  Although I'm sure I'll do it once or twice this season, especially when they start coming out with selling them green, which is my wife's favorite.

[KennethT]

I'm impatient and decided to try the Indian mango once it warmed up to room temp (Fresh Direct delivers everything in a refrigerated truck). I am a bit disappointed, but not surprised.  It was ok.  Decent aroma, moderately sweet and only slightly fibrous, it didn't hold a candle to the Florida grown mangoes I've gotten in the past, not to mention the ones I've had in SE Asia.  Pound for pound, it's probably about the same price as the stuff I get from Florida, shipping included.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2022 by KennethT (log)

[weinoo]

Do you know where they are being grown, @KennethT? 

 

I've seen the Kesar at Trader Joe's - last year, I think.  The guy on my corner has 3 or 4 varieties of mangoes - currently, it looks as if he gets the ataulfo from either Mexico or Dominican Republic. I try to let them really soften up on the counter when I buy from him.

 

You've of course hit on the basic issue I have with fruits and veg from Fresh Direct. That truck is refrigerated almost to freezing, and many fruits and vegetables don't enjoy the ride. (My steak, on the other hand, was very good).