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