jumpingmonk's Profile
Little Green Mystery Plum
Thank you. And you were right, with a little salt they are a lot better, partiucalry the ones that are a little riper (they got softer the deeper into the contatiner I) I imagine that the halves in the salt water (I halved them before tossing them in sice I wanted to keep the pits for planting like I do with all the plums peaches etc. I eat.) will taste even better in a day or so.
Little Green Mystery Plum
Hi,
I was hoping someone out there could provide me with a little enlightement as to some plums I purchased a few days ago from a Middle Eastern supermarket (and have found in previos years in Indian supermarkets as well). They sort of resemble green gages (the tiny Old English Reine Claude type not the larger or more pointed green plums often sold as greengages here in the US) maybe a tiny bit paler. They are incredibly hard, as if they are severely underripe. Normally that's what I'd assume they must be underripe greengages. However not only are ALL of them ALWAYS sold in this rock hard state, but by and large they never actually soften up, no matter how long they are kept (so if they are underripe, they are sold so underripe that no one could selling them could expect them to ripen). and the rare one that does soften up seems not to really taste much like a greengage, it is at best sort of sour and more often than not tastes of absolutely nothing. So does anyone have a clue as to what these plums actually are. I have seen a Turkish plum on Ebay (in offering for pits) called a Kascarta that sort of looks the same. and as a secondary question, if these fruits are supposed to be sold in this hyper underripe state, how exactly is one supposed to prepare them? are they supposed to be pickled (like ume plums) or cooked in syrup. Clues please.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Update 5/23/12
The other kind of Lychees (the lighter more greenish ones) are in now as well.
The only newish fruit I saw today was something called a Gaya melon (or something like that) at a stand on Grand near Forsyth. Smallish (mosrly grapefruit sized, though 1-2 were a bit bigger) yellow rind with dark green spots. Didn't buy as I don't like melons (except watermelon)
Mystery Japanese Herb/vegetable
Hi all,
Yesterday while I was in a Japanese grocery store I saw some sort of herb/vegatable that I was wondering if anyone could identify. Unfortunately, I'm blanking on the name printed on the label (except I do remember it began with "k" and ended in "o") in each of these styrofoam pakages were 4-5 very tiny, somewhat feathery leaves (looked a bit like salad burnet leaves) I assume it is probably a fairly exotic ingredient (simply gouing on the guess that each of these tiny packages of five leaves cost about 2.50. any clues?
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Oh, one thing I forgot, I didn't see the soursops, so the guy is probably out again.
Actually, maybe I'll see how jambu work as a pie filling (I had to split all of the one ones I bought to find those pits, so I now have a big container filled with cut fruit. They are sort of cruncy like apples, maybe they cook like apples as well. Might be just what I need to balace out those dried white mulberries I bought last week.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Okay, Back from my weekly trip and I have a LOT to report
1. I DID manage to get some Jambu (That's the name I learned it as) so I can now say I have tasted that as well. I thought it was OK, juicy, but a little weak of flavor (what there was sort of reminded me of hothouse strawberries, or the way the blueberries on the bushes in our yard (which are under hard stress, and so produce really inferior berries) taste. I was also a little dissapointed with how.......infertile they were. in the 2lbs of fruit I bought I managed to pull out a grand total of 3 seeds (not a big deal for one who is eating them, but I LIKE being able to plant the pits of my exotic fruit when I am done.). For the record, jambu also seem to be available at the fruit stand in front of Tin Duc (on Division street, about half a block east or so of Allen) and there they are $4 a pound (i.e. $1 less per pound than they are at the first fruit stand).
2. By now pretty Much EVERYONE appears to have gotten Wang Pei in (though since the logan have shown up, and they look at a cursory glance much like Wang Pei, I may be overestimation. But there are a lot of them. Unfortunately, as Dave noted, they are all sour round ones (the bunches with the few long sweets the seller by Tu Quynh had have long since been sold, and the newer, larger bunches he has now are all sours.)
3. Finally as Buttetart Hoped THE LICHEES ARE IN! At the moment it's the oval red kind, but the brown kind with the taper should show up soon. Actually, it may be due to the weird weather we've been having, but I think this is the first time I've see all three of the Sapidacae fruits (lichees, longans, and rambutan) available at the same time.)
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
My pleasure. Incidentally, if you see any durians that look REALLY weird, please let me know. I have heard vague rumors that some of the Indoneasian countries are thinking of trying some of the other eight known edible species on the interantional market. In particualr keep your eyes out for red durian D. Dulcis, pulu D. Kutujensis (more popular in some parts of Borneo than the standard zibethius, plus that one is already being cultivated in Australia. and D. Testudinarium. Don't have a lot of info on that last one, but based on what I have it's probably quite small, maybe no larger than an orange (it may be even smaller, to the point where it can pass for a rambutan) so a bite size durian. (the other interesting thing about it is where it grows, unlike the normal kind, which grow on the branches of the tree, D.testudinarium bears its flowers and fruits on the trunk, more or less at ground level.)
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Was just in the area today. FYI the Asian Mart on Mulberry (next the park, maybe one store further towards Canal) also had the King durians (they've actyually had them for months, but as I am not a huge durian fan, I was not paying attention and just though their durians looked unusually small and oddly formed). And they only want $7 per pound.
I took a look at the wampees at Tu Quynh as well, You are mostly right that they are primarily the round, sour ones, but a few of the bunches had a stem or two of the sweet oval ones, often on the side touching the display (where they were hidden).. I did not buy (I find even the sweet ones too sour for me, and the pot of seedlings from the first batch I tried is already too full) but they are there.
Holy basil seeds?
Well, I had one holy basil plant show up spontaneously on my patio last year, which could only have come from a seed dropped by the plant the previos year that over wintered in the soil (I'm in New York). So the seed can survive outdoors on occasion even here.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
For reasons I'n not 100% clear on, a lot of the dealers in Chinatown don't seem to differentiate between the two kinds of wampee; it is pretty common to see rounds and longs bound together in the same bunches. I do not defintively know if you can ask for one or the other (the one time I bought wampee, I was confused about the etiquette of purchase and assumed you had to buy the fruit by the whole rubber banded bunch (that was one expensive trip to the fruit stall) but they probably will, in whichy case, it's simply a matter of keeping your eyes peeled and grabbing longs as they show up.
Donkey Salume
Agreed. I know of know of no USDA approved processing centers for poopy (yes, that is actually what donkey meat is technically called!) If you are traveling I should point out hover that venice is far from the only place that serves it. Saucisson d' Ane is a speciality of the French town of Alres (and horse sausage is common throughout the Camauge area)
Actually you may have already tasted it. I remeber reading that it is pretty common to add horse and donkey to the pork in many European dry sausages, common enough the USDA was working on a way to be able to DNA test sausage meat to determine what animals were present.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
One more tip I finally figured out, after studying all of my empty shells (I tend to simply split nuts along the seam with a knife when eating them, so the two shell halves are usually intact when I am done). The "rock nuts" (the ones with the super tight insides, which make the nuts almost impossible to extract tend to be oval, on the small size (abt 3cm, according to my tape measure) and have reduced "wings" (the ridge along the seam). So you probably want to not buy any that look like that.
One last thing. In some Chinese marekts you will see bags (I haven't yet seen them loose, though if I did it would not suprise me), of round hazelnut sized nuts marked as "small walnut" (you can also sometimes find them already shelled) these are actually seeds of the Chinese Hickory, (Carya cathayensis) which actually makes them close cousin to the pecan. However I REALLY don't reccomend these unless you are fond of hickory nuts (and I don't mean pecans, they are atypical). They have a strong flavor that can only be described as "woody" all the time. The fact that they are invariably pre roasted, cracked (not shelled but cracked) and salted doesn't help matters (the cracking means the nuts have air getting in and are often rancid by the time you get them).
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Just back from my weekly trip. No sign of lychess, but one of the stands on Mulberry had the first Rambutans in. Didn't buy any though (those brigt pink ones with the green hair always seem a little hard and sour to me, I'll wait for the red ones)
Did see pomelos at a few stands along the east side of grand (the bit between Chrystie and Allen) At least I think I did (Since I'm not a big fan of pomelos, I wasn't looking too closely, some of them could have been grapefruit).
On I brief non fruit note, I saw to my dismay (as I was on the bus on my way back to Grand Central) the Sun Cafe (on Allen near Houston) was shuttered. I hope that's just temporary, I really like thier glutinous rice dumplings.
The one big of good fruit news I have locally is that one of the markets near me got in a load of old type satsumas (the little kind)
Anybody grow fennel?
Not impossible, but that seems a little more how do I put it, "advancedt" than the level of seeds this company offereed. Besides all the plants looked the same they just smelled different.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
That's the place They keep them in a big drum on the corner.
BTW there are also some that are unusually oval and pointed at both ends, byut you may want to pass on those (they are really hard to open)
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
How to tell which walnut species you are looking at (for buttertart)
Okay here is a quick thumb guide to what each type of walnut looks like based on the likey other parent (in all cases, the primary parent will be assumed to be the common Englsih or Persian walnut, Juglans regina.
1. Manchurian walnut, J. mandshurica. Walnuts that are part to all this have a sort of top shape, a lot sharper and more tapered than the shape of a normal walnut. they tend to have a very sharp point to the tip and often have much deeper pits on the sides than a pure english see this link for a pic of purebred manchurians, this will give you an idea of what I am talking about. These are the ones with the sweetish flavor
http://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/12785.jpg
half breeds wont be as severe (though I found a few that would cont as spitting images). Incidentally there may be some special signifcance to these, as I recall seeing two manchurian walnuts that had bee shined up sitting in a tray in a Jewelry shop in Flushng. There are also a few that have the inside structure of these, but you probably should hope you DON'T get any of those, as the combenation of the tighter, more woody internal shell structure with the more hevily ridged kernel of the standard nut results in a nut where the kernel is basically completely surrounded by woody shell in each fold, so it cannot be gotten out without smashing the nut to smithereens (and usually destroying the insides in the process)
2. Iron Walnut, J. regina silligata. Tecnically this is a subsepcies of the common walnut, but it is different enough to warrant idetification. The nuts of these tend to be a bit flattened, and be quite a bit wider across the seam than along it (try looking at the nut from the bottom to see this). In cases of extrmeley high (in this case, possibly pure) silligata, the sides will actually bulge out from from the seam so that, from the end, the nut looks almost rectangular or hourglass shaped. These tase pretty standard though they are a bit plumper and richer than regular and have a higher precentage of nuts that are "light" inside (there is something in the skin of walnut kernels that I sometimes have a problem with, and I have discovered that the lighter the color of the skin, the less of whatever it is is there, and the easier the nuts go down for me)
3. Black Walnut J, nigra (?) Black walnut is not native to China, but it is exproted so commonly as a nursery tree I can easily believe that some may have gotten to China. They are not common but I have found nuts that have the shape of those (a slightly flattened sphere, little to no ridge on the seam) in the mix, so they may have some in there. It is also possible that these are examples of the Paradox walnut, a hybrid of the English and Hind's Walnut, J. hindsii (native to Northern California) most paradox are sterile (that's why it's so popular for stree plantings, no pollen or nuts to worry about fouling up the street) but there are fertile strains. I have a few pure Hind's I got to plant in my yard, and the resemblence is so uncanny that if the two get mixed up (as has happened a few times) I need to look hard to tell which is which) Havent tasted a lot of these (they are rare, so what I find I have largely put aside to plant) but the 1-2 I did (because they were cracked) had a touch of the darker black walnut/hinds walnut taste
There are also some that are almost completely smooth (no seam on the ridge, almost no indents in the shell) but what the other parent for those is I have no clue (the only really smooth walnut I know of with that shape is hyper rare, and only grows in South America (somewhere in the Andes, I think)
Finally, while it has no bearing on taste, the orchard they are getting these from must be pretty old, as I am finding a fair number of nuts with 3-4 seams, rather than the usual 2 (that normally only starts happening after the tree gets to be 100 years old, or more.)
Chinatown fruit report - new for the 2011 season [old]
In that case, come over to the new thread and I'll give you a species identification tutorial, so you know which ones you want to be picking out.
Chinatown Fruit Report-2012
Okay here is the annual place to discuss fruit (and related) finds made in Ctown this year (reports of interesting fruits found in other areas are OK too) I'll begin
I'm not really sure if this count's as a fruit report, but it is something I've known about for a few weeks, and might be of interest. It concerns Kam Man, the supermarket on Canal between Mulberry and Mott, for at least the last month or so (probably more, but I've only been visiting that long) the herb section near the counter has had a tub of unshelled walnuts of surprising quality. Not only are they tasty (provided you know how to weigh nuts in your hand to make sure you don't get any withered ones) but a lot of them are HUGE, like ping pong ball sized (and a fair number are even larger, I've picked up ones that are the size of small apricots.) It would probably take a bontanist (like me) to notice this, but quite a few nuts also seem to be from trees that are part (possibly even all) other species (not breeds, actual species) many of which result in nuts with alternate, often delicios variations on a "normal" walnuts flavor (like a walnut that has the sweetness of a pecan while still having a normal walnuts oliyness.)
other than that, the normal stuff, Jackfruits are in as are those itsy bitsy mangoes and apples. Most sellers have mangosteens too by now, though again mostly frozen ones. Only semi odd fruit I've seen have been bunches market as champagne grapes that don't look much like them ones I know. there a bit bigger for one, and for a second theyre green (the ones I know are always purple)
Chinatown fruit report - new for the 2011 season [old]
I'm not really sure if this count's as a fruit report, but it is something I've known about for a few weeks, and might be of interest. It concerns Kam Man, the supermarket on Canal between Mulberry and Mott, for at least the last month or so (probably more, but I've only been visiting that long) the herb section near the counter has had a tub of unshelled walnuts of surprising quality. Not only are they tasty (provided you know how to weigh nuts in your hand to make sure you don't get any withered ones) but a lot of them are HUGE, like ping pong ball sized (and a fair number are even larger, I've picked up ones that are the size of small apricots.) It would probably take a bontanist (like me) to notice this, but quite a few nuts also seem to be from trees that are part (possibly even all) other species (not breeds, actual species) many of which result in nuts with alternate, often delicios variations on a "normal" walnuts flavor (like a walnut that has the sweetness of a pecan while still having a normal walnuts oliyness.)
Little Round Pickled Fruits -- ID Help?
Not really. Gooseberry is just a term of convenience; these things are not related to the European Gooseberry, Ribes uva-crispa. These things grow on short trees. I imagine the "gooseberry" application was added by the British, who thoght they either looked (they are pale green) or tasted similar. it's not all that different to how lian wu are often called rose apples or wax apples, even though they are no realtion to apples, any more than are custard apples. Or how the smaller Malpigia fruits are called barbados cherries or surinam cherries.
New Mystery Citrus; I am in Heaven
Could be, though the only one that had any sort of navel was the sour one. I tore the sticker when I opened the fruit and lost it, and as I am not 100% sure of the name of the growers (I know they have a logo of a deer's head but the extact name is escaping me. "Buck farms" is just my best guess) I will have to wait until I go back and see a copy to check (even if they dont have more oranges, they will probably have grapefruit by them) and then look up their list of fruits. But it might be, they grow a lot of odd citrus (there probably one of the only ones i know that still offer the smaller pure bred satsumas.
Little Round Pickled Fruits -- ID Help?
THAT'S IT (I found a photo of the seeds online and they match perfetcly)
I got a little confused becuse I was thinking of the eruopean gooseberry. You know I thoigh it might be some sort of Phyllanthus (the pits are sort of similar)
Little Round Pickled Fruits -- ID Help?
No, I know what a Kumquat looks like, they're orange and have an orange like structure inside not a central pit.
New Mystery Citrus; I am in Heaven
Hi all,
A few days ago I happened to pop in to a local branch of Mrs. Green's and, as usual, I decied to pick up some tangerines or oranges (I tend to find the organic suppliers they use produce unusually good citrus fruits) Since the pile was small, I basically made by bag by taking all of the fruit that was NOT varieties I know I do not like. I do this a lot, with the upshot being the fruit I wind up with is a sort of grab bag (they stock dozens of suppliers and basically just divide the fruit up by general lines, so you don't really know what you are getting unless you bother to index lables to taste. So this time around, a lot of the fruit was a sort of nondescript round orange fruit (as opposed to the more flattened shape tangerines usually are) When I began to peel one, I got my first shock. Whatever they were they were not tangerines. they seem to be at least part blood orange as the pith is pinkish and the fruit segments were pink as well though not the shade one normally associates with any of the blood orange strans (they were basically the color of a pink grapefruit) so curios im popped a segment in my mout, and got the second big surpise, the things taste like no citrus I have ever had. As I said, I have no idea what there fruits are (one of the had the label of Buck Farms, but Buck Farms grows so many kinds of citrus that using thier website to guess what you got is a crapshoot at best) but going on taste alone, I'd say they are only half orange, the blood side (probably the older Moro (that is the one that longer and has the nearly brown rind right? I always get the variety names mixed up) given the shape and lake of any oragne coloration at all. And the other half is something like Jamaican/Palestinian Sweet Lemon.What I am getting at is, these thing have absoulely no acid AT ALL * Normally I find this the main detractor to the sweet lemon (I find it flat tasting without the acid). But crossed to the blood it works perfectly, it's wonderful. As a bonus they also have a touch of that rasberry flavor blood oranges can get. This things defy description. I just hope they have more when I go back next week!
*actually one of them was sour but if the variety is new, it may throw a throwback from time to time, Oddly that one was also the only one whose pith was NOT pink tinged (the flesh was, but not the pith) and the one one that was seedless.
Strawberries have no flavor anymore. Agree or disagree?
My wild strawberries (well my alpine strawberries, which I think are the same thing) are in a half whiskey barrel on my patio. While too few to really give me any volume, they do have the advantage of doing thier best in really cold weather, which means the stawberries I get come in either very early in the spring, before most fresh fruit comes into the farmers markets or late in the fall, after it has all gone (it is not uncommon for me to be serving fresh picked ruit from them at the end of Thanksgiving dinner. They don't always have wonderful flavor, but part of that may arise from the fact that they happen to be white fruited strawberries, so it's a little had to tell when they are ripe. As an added bonus just after I planted the original seeds, the space under them was taken over by a hive of sweat bees which has two big advantages, I get 100% pollination and they form a great defence against birds who might otherwise eat the fruit.
Strawberries have no flavor anymore. Agree or disagree?
Like I said, there are muliple strains, some taste good, some don't (most of the oens this year have been lousy)
Little Round Pickled Fruits -- ID Help?
sorta hard to describe. It's triangular but inflated (that is it's a triangle with sides the bulge out. At each edge and the middle of each side is a rige at the top of the seed capsule are three holes, each of wich contains some "whiskers" (filaments from the frut that stay around once you remove the restv at the bottom is a hard "spindle". When the seed capusle blows up (along those ridges I mentioned), it splits into three secontios (each of which later breaks along the other rige into a total of six. in each side of the "middle break" is a small wedge shaped seed (to me it's about the shape of a morning glory seed but a little bigger) usually white, occasionally brown. That's really the best I can describe it. I'd post a photo, but they to small for the scanner, and my phone cameria has lousy resolution.
