Citrus Fruits You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of

[a_cubed]

I’ve been meaning to post something about this for a while. Japan has a number of critus fruits of which I’ve never seen mention outside Japan. I use three of these (and lemon juice) for flavouring fizzy water as a lower calorie alternative to the CC Lemon soda I used to drink. (I stopped because it was unavailable after the earthquake last year for a while and having weaned myself off it I reduced my calorie intake by sticking to fizzy water with a little flavouring of pure citrus juices.) The first is the yuzu which is a medium sized (about the same size as a Seville orange) yellow fruit usually with a bumpy at the stalk connection. It’s used in quite a lot of Japanese flavourings. For instance yuzu-flavoured soy sauce is quite common. It’s sharp but not particualrly astringent. Next we have the sudachi which looks a little like a lime and is similarly quite hard, though rounder. It’s imilarly astringent. It’s much more sour than the yuzu and very rarely eaten directly, though $WIFE says her farmer grandfather like to eat them (they had a few trees on the farm). Lastly there is the kabosu a yellow green fruit slightly larger than the yuzu. This is more commonly eaten as fruit than the other two. It’s also used by others as a drink flavouring, sometimes being available on ANA flights when they bring drinks round after the meal service, for example. There’s a number of other critus fruits available in Japan that I haven’t seen elsewhere but as I haven’t tasted them (or their juice) I’ll leave those for another day.

Comments

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Now if only you could post the flavours themselves to the internet...

The only new flavour I have encountered here in NZ is the Feijoa (fee-jo-uh) which is (seldom) also called the "pineapple-guava" for the taste. A Chilean native, it is most popular here. Flavour is, uh.... pineapple guava.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Yes, despite the name the kiwifruit is not native to NZ, of course, but is originally Chinese. The citrus fruits I mentioned are mostly Chinese or derived from Chinese originals by hybridisation. According to Wikipedia, in 2007 the largest exporter of kiwifruit was Italy, with NZ second.
I'm still a bit surprised by how seasonal both the price and availability of fruit is here in Japan. It definitely shows the protectionist Japanese attitude to trade quite well. It's easy to compare with the UK being another island off the coast of a large continent. In the UK almost all fruit except specific varieties grown only in the UK, is available year-round shipped in from a variety of places, as far away as NZ. In Japan evn those things which are not locally produced at all tend to be only seasonally available when in season in one particular place. Figs for example seem to come entirely from Iran and are only available for about three months. Fruit is typically 4 or more times as expensive as in the UK, as well. That's ignoring the large varietals one sees at ridiculous prices which are meant as conspicuously expensive gifts (and which give visitors sticker stock about fruit prices).

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember my first trip in '89 and seeing an exquisite display of cantaloupe/rockmelon in dovetail-joined, green velvet lined, highly polished, brass-hinged pine boxes at the local grocery for about 60 quid each.

The availability of imported bananas is reliable year-round here, but after that it gets sketchy. NZ fruit is great if a bit limited in cultivars and growing seasons. Food is always expensive here, with the best quality going overseas for export as we as a nation can't afford much of or own produce.

That said, despite the expensive food and energy costs, the overall quality of life is such that these things don't much trouble me- but I am a well paid IT industry guy.

[a-cubed.livejournal.com]

Actually, yes, bananas are one thing which are year-round available here, albit again at higher price than the UK. I can understand NZ having higher costs for things - it really is a long way from anywhere else except Australia. Having said that, the UK is just about directly opposite NZ, IIRC and NZ apples are reasonably priced in the UK so why would shipping in the reverse direction be that much more expensive? Yes, I know these things have odd economics sometimes, but still. Perhaps with the UK it's just that they exceeded a step change in economy of scale at some point, or perhaps its just the volume of trade that goes to Europe generally from elsewhere in the world and between the UK and mainland Europe just means that the economics go through a step change.