Let's talk about fruit

[rach 1]

Kuri-gohan. Yummy. I really like that.

[gamera 0]

How about sansai okowa? That's one of my favorite. Oops, sansai is not fruit ...

[slow 0]

Gamera or Ocean,

Have you ever tried Mukago Gohan before?

When my friend told me about Mukago, I never heard this and it sounded like insects for me. But I found Mukago at vegitable market the other day. They are babies from Jinenjo. I learned how to make Mukago gohan, if I can find them again, I'll try it for the first time!

rach, Kuri gohan is my favorite, too! That's why I can be patient enough for peeling all chestnuts shell for an hour.

I wanted to loose 2kg before winter but it's bad time to go on a diet now...

[Ocean11 0]

slow, I've never had that. I'd never heard of Jinenjo either. Is it different from yamaimo? Mukago sounds like mukade babies. I've eaten some weird stuff, but that I don't want in my rice!

[bettyx 0]

does apple pie count as a fruit?

 

just ate the biggest piece ever. possibly due to freezing cold.. nope, doesn't look like i'll be losing any weight before winter!

[kintaro 0]

Gamera, by sansai are you talking about mountain veggi's? I love 'em!

 

BTW, Yamakashi, how old were you when you lived on Oahu? If you were old enough to drink (Restaurant Row, Univ. Mooses, The Wave, Aloha Tower, Ward Warehouse (Esp. Compadre's or Ryans), etc, etc...) there is a good chance we've met up at some place or another...

 

Fruits! I stopped at a roadside stand the other day in Yamagata and bought some fabulous kaki, fig and fuji apples. I'm good for a week or two.

[soubriquet 0]

Obanazawa farmers at work preparing for next years melon crop. These soils are fabulous, deep and dark, but free draining, especially when ridged and covered.

 

[1st plum 0]

What happened to my fruit thread!? Go away a bit and see what happens

 

Can I bring it back onto the subject of Plums. Plums are fantastic.

[slow 0]

I'm so glad I could make Kurigohan this year. yummy, yummy.

[kintaro 0]

Japanese peaches, strawberries, and melons are the best! Hands down. I wouldn't deny prices reflect it but Japan farmers create some incredible fruits (and veggies for that matter). In Hawaii the poor can generally eat good fruits without too much consideration on the family budgit. Coconuts, papaya, guava,and mango all grow in abundance without purchasing restrictions. In fact, I used to live on a valley with a mango tree that produced so much fruit that I took up the sport of golf just to whack the fallen fruits into the valley. The alternative was to allow the cockroaches and mosquitoes to take over. A ripe mango invites all kinds of new (unwanted) friends. I don't like golf that much but it was the logical alternative.

[AK 77 0]

can anyone tell me why fruit, which seems to grow so abundantly (at least round here in Nagano) is so bloody expensive compared to all other food in Japan.

 

I'm from the UK, which has some of the highest food prices in the world, but fruit in Japan is just ridiculous - it should be gold plated at this price!

[Yuki's Passion 1]

>Japanese peaches

 

are not the best - Georgia Peaches are!

[soubriquet 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by AK 77:
can anyone tell me why fruit, which seems to grow so abundantly (at least round here in Nagano) is so bloody expensive compared to all other food in Japan.

It's because of all the hand work and individual attention. For example, here the peaches are individually wrapped while still on the tree, before ripening. Perfect fruit requires fanatical attention. That's why foreign fruit is mostly rubbish. Cheap though.

[Ocean11 0]

Growing fruit is not a simple matter, and since Japanese people expect a certain standard of living that comes at a high price, Japanese fruit is necessarily expensive. If you buy fruit from overseas, you're undercutting the Japanese lifestyle and relying on the products of cheap labour and cheap fossil fuel for transportation.

 

If you want to eat lots of good quality fruit at more reasonable prices, find a farmer's market, or make friends with a fruit farmer. Or grow your own.

[AK 77 0]

yes, i have in the past had really cheap friut directly from whoever grew it, but that was only by chance - do they have farmers markets here?

 

Foreign fruit is mostly rubbish?

I have had just as much variety and quality of fruit in the UK (from greengrocers or orchards, not supermarkets) and the UK hardly has the best climate for growing, so I imagine that is rubbish - as those in OZ, or elsewhere would probably agree.

[AK 77 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:
Growing fruit is not a simple matter, and since Japanese people expect a certain standard of living that comes at a high price, Japanese fruit is necessarily expensive.


If you buy fruit from overseas, you're undercutting the Japanese lifestyle and relying on the products of cheap labour and cheap fossil fuel for transportation.

Do you mean that Japanese people expect to pay a high price for certain things as they are symbols of 'high quality living'? Or that they expect high quality fruit?

I don't wish to do anything to support the ridiculous shipping of half-ripe apples from NZ, etc, but shopping locally should be cheaper - do you mean its expensive because it is subsidising the relative prosperity of the local old farmers and their little white k-pickup trucks? (a bit like agricultural subsidies in France, but fruit is cheap there.)

[kintaro 0]

Very true Ocean. Whenever possible, growing your own is the best. I've grown monkey bananas, mango, mikan, avacado, lychee, I had a lemon bush...they might not have been as good as you can buy in the shops but there is a certain pride in trying and growing your own food. That's just the fruits. My Veggie experiments are many (with many failures).

[Yuki's Passion 1]

I only seem able to grow weeds and big weeds at that - oh well, gotta be proud of something

[soubriquet 0]

I guess I'm priviledged, because we almost never have to buy fruit. Yamagata is an agricultural prefecture, and in season the stuff arrives by the box load on an almost daily basis. Cherries, watermelons, stone fruit and now apples and pears.

 

My only recent frame of reference is WA, and the fruit there is not as good as the fruit here.

 

When I first came to Japan, soubriquette mentioned the general lack of natural resources in Japan. I pointed out the abundant heat, sunshine, water and incredibly fertile soils. While not neccessarily ideal for growing wine grapes or citrus fruit, Japan is agriculturally blessed. In comparison, Australian soils are shocking. Typically they comprise silica, iron and aluminium. Everything else has to be added, including water. 75% of Australia's fresh water is squandered on irrigation.

[kintaro 0]

I should have mentioned, I inherited the mango, lychee, and mikan tree. I don't really know if you call it a lemon bush but mine was definitely not big enough to call it a tree. I had sort of a bonzai looking avacado tree but it did produce. And the guacamole that came after is a bit of a legend in parts of Hawaii

[damian 0]

I remember Japanese fruit to be consistently excellent quality, in some cases, it was beyond any thing I have had (sberry, figs, peach, mikan)

 

I also remember that he range available was quite limited, often no more than three varieties of apple on offer and only one variety of pear. In addition, I missed the ability to rummage through a big table of apples or oranges etc and select my own. The style of presentation and packaging made fruit in Japan look like it came via a factory, not a tree. These two comments are based upon what I found to the typical suburban supa in Tokyo.

 

I am currently enjoying very imperfect organic apples from a bio shop that look and taste exactly like the imperfect but crunchy apples from the tree in my childhood garden.

[snobee 0]

Yes the lack of variety is quite noticeable.

 

A couple of kinds of peaches, a few types of grapes, 1 or 2 watermelons.......etc.

 

And the sizes are often WAY too big - just to please the unknowing consumers who think big = better. Most cases you're buying extra water with the delicate sugar balances thrown akilter and flavours diluted.

 

I've had delicious fruit here, but hardly the stuff to be championing on about - given the raw conditions.

A$50+ is not uncommon for a melon that frankly would have nought on any home grown number in Australia. And on melons - wow the dearth of varieties!

 

Spread the topic to include vegetables and woe.

 

And I don't mean exotic rare stuff. Pumpkins and squashes! Potatos! Tomatoes! Cucumbers! Beans!

 

Hell you'd think there's a conspiracy or secret govt directive to grow just the same ol 1 or 2 kinds.

 

Or maybe it's the length of the Japanese intestine or whatever.

 

But frankly in my humble one, fresh fruit & veg here is nothing to crow about.

 

As suggested earlier your best bet is, if you can't grow the stuff - get onto local farmers markets or make friends with a farmer. Then you can at least taste the real thing, even though if your choices are limited.

[damian 0]

Snobee - I am with you on the strange lack of variety. But it isn't a fair comparison, Australian FnV vs Japanese (not withstanding Australia's recent banana issue). Australia is quite simply spoilt for freshness and range. Even a crappy supermarket used to sell pretty much every fruit you could imagine. And seldom did they have a guide for the buyer explaining what each vegetable was. In England I found a plain-Jane butternut pumpkin from Argentina that had an 'exotic' sticker on it and a brief description of what it was and how to cook it. Oh dear.

 

Italian street markets, which are awesome, are the only things that come even close to a good Oz fruit and vegetable shop. And the good thing about Australia is most of what you eat was picked within 10 hours drive of where you live.

 

But I stand by my strawberry claim, they are good. In fact they are almost too sweet in Japan, like they have been injected with sugar syrup before sale. I have not seen any like them before or after. Mikans, figs and cucumbers are also better in Japan than I have seen elsewhere.

 

And the yuba is awesome, but that's not a fruit, not even close. I just love the stuff

 

Soubs - WA probably suffers from lack of good farm land and isolation therefore doesn't have the range that eastern Oz has?

[nagpants 1]

 Quote:

just to please the unknowing consumers who think big = better

Strange that isn't it. So often things are small and cute in Japan rather than big.

[bushpig 0]

I beg to differ on the WA issue. WA has great fruit and veg, and the variety kicks Japan's arse. We have a lot of tropical fruit from up north (Carnarvon, Kunnunurra, etc) and grow a lot of other stuff in the SW. I dunno where you were buying Soub, but we always had plenty to choose from and great quality. I agree with snobee that often the fruit (especially apples) are too big and lack the taste of some of the fruit back home. But I also agree with spud about the strawberries! Damn! They are beautiful!