My tendency to see the glass half empty has led some to believe that there isn't much enjoyable about life here in Beijing. I imagine that if you really let me go on and on about the pollution, the rude people, and the lack of quality in household products, you'd think that we live in the Dark Ages and that China is without running water and indoor plumbing. Quite the contrary in Beijing (though true in some parts of rural China).
In fact, it's been a rich cultural experience for Jujube, my two-year-old. She understands Chinese perfectly now and says some pretty complex stuff. It's also been a great experience for her taste buds.
Mr. Mouse Potato, born and reared in New Jersey, only developed palate for apples, bananas, and oranges. He considers pears and cherries exotic fruits and won't touch a papaya or its tropical cousins.
Juju, on the other hand, thinks that lychees are a regular household fruit. It's now past lychee season but she'll still ask for the sweet fruit with a juicy and translucent flesh. She didn't like its cousin longan so much as it's much smaller and not as juicy. She had mangosteens yesterday and took to them immediately. Unfortunately I only had six so there wasn't a lot to spare (and I didn't).
Her recent favorite is the dragon fruit. It is about the size of a small turnip and bright pink on the outside (see picture). The flesh is white with many black seeds size of sesames. It's full of nutritions and great for kids. The only downside is that the seeds aren't digestible so they come out pretty much in the same color and consistency as when they went in.
By now she's probably had more species of fruits than most of ye faithful readers. I've really enjoyed sharing my favorite fruits with her and I'm a proud, card-carrying member of the fruit-phile club. My only regret is that I didn't introduce the durian to her properly. Durians stink like swiss cheese and tastes like honeyed potatoes, but it is oh so heavenly. She had one bite and spat it out. I haven't yet given up and will try giving her another bite next week. I firmly believe that a life without a love of durians is a life deprived.
1 comment:
Hey! That's not really being fair to Chinese supermarkets in the US (who carry a pretty good selection of fruits) and my parents (who went through pains to get great fruit for us when we were growing up). Mr. MP just refused to eat those fruits. We always had papayas and mangos and lychees and longans and cherries and apricots and odd melons and tropical fruits and other stuff - way more fruit variety around the house than the average American supermarket carries. My parents are pretty big fruit-philes too. Mr. MP was just the brat who refused to eat any of it.
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