Fruit News from Shatin

It is a big surprise to me today that I find Australian big oranges (brand: Red Earth) sold in W-Supermarket. Although they are quite expensive, around HK$4.60, I think it is worth trying. We have been thinking of Australian oranges for a long time.

We seldom see Australian oranges appear in P-supermarket or W-supermarket. P and W supermarkets normally sells Sunkist oranges, first from California, later from South Africa. The former are better in quality, especially those navels. Throughout these months, we have to bear the toughness of the coats of the flesh for long. We simply peel the coats off before we eat the flesh.

The flesh of Californian oranges is first-class and that of Australian ones are equally good to taste, being juicy and sweet. The flesh of South African oranges (at first Sunkist, now Outspan) approahes to sour. As I have said before, the inner skins are tough. We have to use force to bite when eating. To my anger, some of those small, good-looking South African Sunkist oranges sold in a nearby W-supermarket let me down for some time because they are dry at both ends. Only one third of each orange can be eaten. I am sure these oranges have been laid in the shelf without refrigeration and care for days.

Back to last September and October in Vancouver, the supply of oranges was okay. I liked those Pacific-west oranges (from California) and Australian ones. Towards November and December, oranges favourable to me disappeared

In Apple Festival at UBC, I came across a great variety of apples. They came in green, yellow, rosy and red apples. To me, the names of these apples were new and strange to me.

Recently, we prefer to eat green pears (brand: Fruit ways; picture: bee) from South Africa rather than those Chinese “Fuji” apples (becoming smaller, losing sweetness and I believe they are downgraded). The pears are sweet, soft when ripe and hard when rare. The price of each pear is reasonably low, around HK$2.2 to HK$2.5.