Entries tagged with 'fruit'
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Photograph by Kathryn Yu They’re sticky, they’re sweet, they’re incredibly fragrant—and they’re pricey as hell. But, apparently, getting less so. The much-ballyhooed Indian mangoes have landed in the United States for the first time this season, with confirmed sightings at Patel Brothers, the Indian supermarket, in Chicago, New York’s Jackson Heights, and Decatur, Georgia. For seventeen years, Indian mangoes (such as Alphonso, Kesar and Banganpa) were barred from the United States. But that ban was lifted in 2007, and each spring since then, the arrival of the mangoes has been a major event. From the look of this April’s first boxes, prices are easing up. A case of twelve Alphonso mangoes is selling for $25 per box in Chicago,...
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The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Kumquats. Photograph from orphanjones on Flickr Remember Mega Warheads or Super Lemon—those insanely tart, hard candies that made your eyes squinch and your lips pucker and your head go, "Oh my! Oh my!" and then "Ahhh..." when the intense sour finally gave way to sugary-sweet insides? Kumquat cross-section. Photograph from Splat Worldwide on Flickr I remembered them this weekend, when the boyfriend brought home a box of kumquats—tiny, pixie citruses about the size of my thumb and cute as all get out. The Chinese think kumquats resemble gold ingots, so my family always had ornamental...
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The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Hundreds and thousands! Photograph from Shenghung Lin on Flickr Drying hachiyas. Photograph from nineblue on Flickr Hoshigaki are tender, succulent, and moist. These are Hachiya (acorn-shaped) persimmons dried the traditional Japanese way—in the sun, with nary a preservative in sight. The taste is intense—concentrated persimmon flavor with honeyed overtones and perhaps the barest hint of cinnamon—but it's definitely the texture that gets to me. Hoshigaki have chewy, almost jelly-like insides that I distinctly remember my mom trying to con me of when I was a kid ("Sweetie, those dried-up persimmons don't look very good, why...
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Love stories involving fruit are pretty similar to those of humans. Boy likes girl. Girl bats eyelashes (hand-drawn, in this case), gives him her digits (because oranges can write), then falls for a more debonair suitor with a goatee (a banana). Boy finds the two undressed (orange peels everywhere!), debates death (by blender), and indulges in nicotine. Luckily, this tale didn't take too dark of a turn because the banana was probably just some jerk. Artist Alana Yuen made this video for her multimedia class, appropriately to the song "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" by Cake. The video, after the jump....
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Photograph from Travis Hornung on Flickr Our Snapshots from Asia correspondent Wan Yan Ling has already done a great job hipping us to odd produce, like red-fleshed dragon fruit, dried dragon eyes, pulasans, and rambutans. The Web Ecoist reminds us that some things look more science fiction than edible. For example, the Kiwano melon has monstrous green goo in its center, Romanescu broccoli looks like it hosts a tiny civilization on its bright green peaks, and the dragon fruit appears to have just come out of a video game. (In case you don't know how to eat these foods, check out Weird Food.) So what's the most exotic fruit or veggie you've eaten?...
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The Grocery Ninja leaves no aisle unexplored, no jar unopened, no produce untasted. Creep along with her below, and read all her mission reports here. Many people love autumn—the gorgeous fall colors, plentiful apples, hot mulled cider, zany-shaped squash, leftover Halloween candy, etc. I'm no fall grinch, but I completely overdosed on apples as a poor grad student (seriously, I'm talking ten apples a day instead of real food), and am now wary of them. I'm sure my love affair with apples will revive one day, but meanwhile, I'm staying away from them until there's absolutely nothing left to eat in the fruit department. But in fall, what else besides apples can I add to my breakfast muesli—that would not...
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Photograph by static-photo on Flickr "I don't really like apples. Does that make me unpatriotic? Am I a real American?" —Amanda Hesser, on Twitter Make it apple pie, Amanda, and I think we'd have you on the next plane to Gitmo, but plain ol' apples, I sorta hear you. The regular supermarket variety are often flavorless, so why bother? But great heirloom varieties that are in season? Yum. What do you think, serious eaters? Who's pro-apple and who's anti-apple? As evidenced above, I'm taking a centrist stance here....
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Among others, Ginger Gold, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Red Delicious, Fuji, Gala, and Honeycrisp, are showing up in their familiar crates, begging to be turned into applesauce, apple pie, and cooked with pork chops. Here, some suggestions on what to do with fresh-picked apples.
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Photograph from dasmart on Flickr Be careful the next time you eat a piece of fruit and want to reproduce its tissue; it might come with its own End User License Agreement: The recipient of the produce contained in this package agrees not to propagate or reproduce any portion of the produce, including (but not limited to) seeds, stems, tissue and fruit. [via Presurfer]...
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Esther Walker, a 48-year-old woman from Cheltenham, Gloucester, England, was just cutting open a tomato from her garden, minding her own business, when she discovered an unplanned pregnancy. A tomato womb carrying a strawberry. Behold, the strawmato. “We’re keeping it in the fridge in case an expert wants to look at it,” she told authorities. This triggers daydreams of other improbable fruit and vegetable hybrids. What would you want? Simpsons fans are clearly rooting for the tomacco, a cross between tobacco and a tomato, Homer's fertilization project when he "planted a little bit of everything." [via Boing Boing]...
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