Five-A-Day – Fruit

Yes, you heard me right.  I’m going to write about fruit today. 

 

This is the one of my favorite times of year in China.  It is really the volume and variety of the fruit that is impressive.   Don’t get me wrong – the strawberry season is fantastic – starts early – February or March -- and runs late – June.   The summer watermelon season is also awesome with these seedy babies available in yellow and red all summer long, with farmers selling off their trucks and carts across the city.  And well, peach season is passionate – sweet like Georgia’s best -- the Shanghai-ese wax poetically about their peaches, similar to Kramer on Steinfeld when he goes on about the fictional "Mackinaw peach" from Oregon, which are ripe for only two weeks a year.  

So, here are my top five choices for the Fall:

1) Tiny Mandarin Oranges – These are not canned babies you get with some crappy Oriental Chicken Salad from Wendy’s.  These are the real deal.  They peel like a Clementine but the taste is sweeter and they almost slide down your throat.  You can get them everywhere and they are cheap, cheap, cheap.  When we first came to Shanghai on our look-see the driver bought us a bag and it was this ice-breaking moment between us, the broker and the driver.   Them --  probably sick of us.  Us -- contemplating the decision we made to move to China.  We all sat there eating sweet little oranges in the car.

 

                                                                          

Mandarin Oranges and a lime for scale

2) Huge grapefruit with thick skins.  This grapefruit is incredible sweet – almost like that "Ruby Red" grapefruit juice.  The skin is insanely thick, which protects the fruit.  The fruit itself is sweet and the skin of the grapefruit segments is very tender.   

Grapefruit and lemon for scale

3) Dragon fruit.  Yes, it looks like a dragon but the white fruit with black dots is heaven.  I had never had it before moving to Asia. Think a cross between watermelon and a kiwi.  

4) Yellow pomegranates.  Juice baby juice.   I love pomegranates but the work – oh vey.  In Shanghai they toss them into a juicer on the street and make this fabulous pomegranate juice.  No worries about seeds.  They are tossed at least twice during the juicing process.  

5)     Mangoes.  Freakishly big and very yummy.  There is a season for very small mangoes in the spring – different variety.  The early fall brings these jumbo mangoes.  Sweet, they fall off the pit – no stringiness at all.  For my Yankee friends – these are the opposite of those stringy mangoes you get in a bodega.  The closest thing I’ve ever had to these are really expensive Florida mangoes.

Yellow and green mango with lemon for scale

 
 

The Lady from Shanghai Takes on Beijing -- Five-a-Day from the Imperial City

1)  Tea upon arrival

I enjoyed a little tea culture in Beijing when I arrived.  I had woken up at 4 AM to catch a plane and didn’t sleep much the whole night – for fear that I would miss my flight. 

There is nothing like a little sit down and a proper tea service to set you right, and get you going on the day. 

I’ve learned a bit about Chinese Tea Culture, which is very complicated.   Tea Culture is about how tea is made, the water temperature, the snacks you eat while drinking tea, and what you talk about while drinking team (you can talk about tea or ideas).  Tea houses, I read, were originally places for scholars to share their thinking.   

I grew up drinking black tea with milk and sugar, like a proper Irish-American girl.  My Auntie taught me to give the water a “good boil.”  Except at high altitudes, I’m not exactly sure what boiling the water for several minutes did to it. 

In China I have fallen in love with several new kinds of tea  -- white, jasmine, yellow, puer and quality green tea are among my favorites. ( I had of course had green tea before coming to China but tea is very serious business here and the green tea is nothing like I have had in the US.)  I am also quite fond of tea made from rose buds and chrysanthemum.  I don’t make a good pot of chrysanthemum tea yet.  I still make it too bitter.  I think my issue is the water temperature.

Chinese tea is not made with boiling water – it is just below boiling.  The tea is saturated with water and then that first batch of tea is tossed out.  The next batch and the next and the next are the quality tea to drink.  It is a bit like wine tasting.  The color, the smell, the temperature all matter in true tea culture. 

2) The IBM Office

Like 99% of the buildings in China, this one is designed after a dragon.  Unlike 96% of the buildings in China, which say they are inspired by dragons, this one actually does look like a dragon.  IBM is in the head of the dragon.  I heard that this office has excellent feng shui.  

3)  Olympic Park

Every morning that week we walked from the Intercontinental to the IBM offices.  It is actually a nice walk (except when you are carrying a laptop and all your training supplies.)  On this side of Olympic Park are nice views of the Bird’s Nest Building and the Cube Building, which housed the swimming and diving competitions.  I really do love both buildings.  Every weekend the Olympic mall is packed with Chinese and non-Chinese tourists, who come to take their pictures with these two iconic buildings.  I think for Chinese nationals that they hosted an Olympics will carry on as the point of pride for years to come.  

  

4) The Ling Long Pagoda

This broadcast tower was built for the Olympics and was the home for many Chinese and international broadcasters during the Olympics, including the Today Show broadcasting from the ground floor.  Ling Long means “Delicate Tower.”  It is really a very beautiful structure.  It has six pods and open spaces in between.  I’m not really sure what it is used for today.  At night it changes colors.  Next to the tower many people fly “night kites,” which have flashing lights on them.  Very cool to watch --- but impossible to take pictures of.

5) Photo Spot

Two days down – one to go.   Kathryn, Caroline and I finished coach training and one day of workshops.   Time for a much needed photo break at the end of the day.