Happy Fruits

Living in a city like Singapore means that I never have to pay heed to seasonal fruits. To me, there isn't such a thing. My favorite fruits are easily procured from the supermarket all year round from either the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere, or from the greenhouses.

Took a jaunt to the local markets. Gave the meat section a wide berth. It really really stinks. Hung around the sections of vegetables and fruits. The lovely colors of the fruits and greens made it a happy sight. The market is dry and fairly clean. This is the local market, mind you. Not an expatriate 'wet' market or supermarket. Since there's no cooking to be done, we didn't bother to hop into Carrefour.

The girlfriend pointed out the seasonal fruits in Yunnan. For example, the sweet big oranges (the 'navel' sort) are in season, but dipping soon. The green dates are sweet like the red ones, but are now sour because it has reached the tail end of the season. Strawberries are in the height of sweetness, along with the loquat (or locally known as 'pipa'). She mentioned something about local vegetables too, but I forgot what they were. Something about bitter vegetables and 'dragon claws' (龙爪菜).

I bought a tiny basket of strawberries and munched. Locally grown, and all are sweet. They looked tiny and normal, carrying no hint of the horror stories heard about chemically-altered versions to be plump, juicy and pretty. The pineapples are incredibly sweet too. Locals simply walk with the plastic bag holding one pineapple, taking a bite at any given hour of the day. I haven't learnt to do that yet. I need to stop and chew, and wipe the juice dripping out of the bag onto the hand. Nope. I haven't got the runs from eating the fruits sold at the roadside stalls.