Friday, June 20, 2014

SH! SH! 19: Fruits for Good

besides grocery shopping at

supermarkets like Tesco and Carrefour

we did drop by local wet markets too

Wet market at ShanghaiWet market at Shanghai

 

just to look around

wet market offers varieties in terms of

local vegetables, and definitely

the local fruit definitely look tempting

it’s not difficult to find a fruit store

not necessary in wet market

can easily locate one among the street stores 

local fruit store, Shanghailocal fruit store, Shanghai

 

this is supposedly a peach

they call it a “oil peach” 油桃

a.k.a. Nectarine

but it looks like an apple

and tastes like a plum

mutant!! GM-ed fruit!!

I prefer the classic furry pink peach better

but this wasn’t the season yet 

Nectarine or oil peach 油桃

 

this is a Pi-Pa 枇杷/琵琶果

the taste is quite tasteless

I already forgot how it tasted like, actually

Pi-pa fruit 枇杷果

 

it’s more commonly used for

herb medication if you

happen to know this one

the cough and throat soothing syrup

Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa 念慈庵京都念慈庵蜜炼川贝枇杷膏 02

 

but wait a minute, looks like

I got it all wrong, browsing the 

ingredients list from the official site

there’s no Pi-Pa fruit in there

it’s just Pi-Pa leaf

what?? and they are calling this a

Pi-Pa Syrup

so the fruit is actually a by-product

since the leaf has got more commercial use

Pi Pa fruit & leave 枇杷果&葉 (tonghuashijie.net)

 

yup.. Pi-Pa 琵琶 is

also the instrument

so the fruit is named after

the instrument or vice versa

Wiki states that it’s the former

PiPa (eBay)

 

this is Bayberry 楊梅

tastes sour but it’s pretty juicy

more commonly consumed in

pickled form,

saltish, sweet, more yummy

Bayberry 楊梅

 

this is real good

mini golden mango

locally grown at HaiNan

HaiNan is doing pretty well

with all the tropical fruits which were

previously imported hence rare

I even saw HaiNan Rambutan 

HaiNan Golden Mango 海南芒果

 

and it’s real cheap

sale item at Carrefour

(price quoted in 1/2 Kilogram unit)

HaiNan Golden Mango 海南芒果

 

this is real good too

my dad swallowed at least

1.5 kg I think

sweet and juicy

try squeezing the fruit and

there you get the

fresh cream-colour lychee juice

they nickname this

“Smile of Empire’s Concubine” 妃子笑

妃子笑 lychee

 

the story went all the way back to

Tang Dynasty where

the “notorious” Yang Gui Fei was

crazily in love with this particular lychee

 

“and the emperor had the fruit,

which was only grown in southern China,

delivered by the imperial courier's fast horses,

whose riders would take shifts

day and night in a Pony Express-like manner,

to the capital.”

 

Most historians believe the fruits were

delivered from modern Guangdong, and

the capital, Chang An City 長安城 is

located at modern Xi’An 西安

 

Fruits for thought:

I actually prefer to buy fruits from

supermarket compared to local vendor

because of the price

 

first:

some they don’t even label the price

 

second:

they do place a label yet

when you start choosing

they tell you that

oh the price tag is for the inferior one,

the one you took is 1st class

 

third:

the price is quoted in the

Chinese unit of measurement, Jin 斤

which is equivalent to 600g

yet.. the weighing machine runs

by the modern unit of grams of kilograms

 

do they actually take the

trouble to convert?

I don’t think so

especially if you

do not look like the regulars

I guess they will just

take advantage of the 100g difference

 

fourthly

some more established one

print out the price label

quoting the price per KG and weight

but what about the smaller vendor?

they place the fruits on

the weighing machine for 30 secs

 

before you have the chance to

take a good look at the weight

it has been removed and

they mumble the calculation to themselves

“Sir, here’s your fruit at XX RMB”

 

so we usually ended up

paying more for the fruits

compared to the main meals

 

arrrghh

I wish I have more faith in human

unfortunately I don’t

go back to Tesco and Carrefour then

Tesco. Shanghai Fruit Tesco. Shanghai Fruit

Tesco. Shanghai Fruit Tesco. Shanghai Fruit

 

and you can choose all you want

please do this at moderate manner

you don’t need a magnifying glass, do you

(making no reference to the lady in the photo)

Tesco. Shanghai Fruit