This is Madness

:bigeek:










[video=youtube;fR6GefDZWeQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR6GefDZWeQ[/video]

Meh.

See it every day I go to the supermarket. Maybe not every day, but at the moment I do.

Here's the thing.

These are presentation fruit, the ones you give as gifts. They've been cared for by hand since they were a bud. Right across from these you'll find the $3 mangos, $5 watermelon, etc, etc. Heck, bananas go for 50c a pound as often as not. Stuff isn't that expensive here all the time. Granted, stuff isn't always cheap but it's not completely off the planet all the time.

Says I with 10lbs of nectarines sitting in a box on the floor, and in the past week I've eaten steak that was $5/lb (and good) and we stuffed ourselves with a few pounds of salmon that cost us virtually nothing.

It would be nice to have cheaper food, but at the same time, when you pay for the stuff it's very good. When I was back in Oz earlier this year, I couldn't get over how cheap the produce was, nor how crap it was.

Hmm. Got some melon in the fridge. Might have to eat a few bucks worth... :biggrin:

Stu.

I could be wrong, but most of what I saw was imported.

Schtoo got to post before I could read it. Nice to know. I also wasn't thinking presentation either, but makes sense with how they looked.

I loved the fruit in Japan, everything tasted like it should

Any place with people willing to pay $50 to give someone badass fruit as a gift is sure to have people I will like.

I believe the height of culinary experience is just getting a piece of fruit when it is perfectly ripe, like grabbing an orange off your counter and deciding to eat it, and when you open it and bite, you realize it's the best damn orange you've ever had, you want to bury your face in it, you gotta eat it over the sink and it takes a minute to swallow because you're taking bites bigger than you should. Those experiences are what cooks combine and concentrate, trying to reliably recapture. If I could be guaranteed that all of my food would be at the absolute pinnacle of ripeness/freshness/character, I'd stop cooking altogether.

"This is like regular old [fruit]" No it's not actually. I used to laugh when I saw this stuff until I got to try it for the first time, and it was unlike anything I had ever had. If I had a choice between splitting a nice cake or eating a piece of one of those melons on my birthday, I would take the melon. It was so sweet, ripe, and juicy that it made me feel like every melon I had ever previously had were just cucumbers that looked like melons. When you eat any of the gift fruit you see in the department stores in Tokyo it is really something special. The thing I never understood is how they know that each one is going to taste so good. I'm sure they know they're all pretty good, but how do they know that each one is going to be mind blowing?

I am lucky enough to live next to the Niagara and Norfolk County wine and fruit growing regions. I can get perfect melons and watermelons like that from farmers' market or a roadside stand right now for at most $5. Oh, and our grapes are pretty darn good too!

I had to click off the video by the time he got past the grapes.
This reminds me of some people who will stop here at times.
Usually driving a beater car, $200 basketball shoes and comment on how only someone crazy would buy whatever it is they are looking at.
Not taking into consideration anything other than the price tag.
They are usually a bit surprised when I tell them to leave and point them towards walmart.

That's not madness! That's totally worth it...

Here are some more delicious expensive (though reasonable?) fruits.

Mask Melon




Yubari Melon


Satonishiki Sakuranbo (Cherry) NOTE: These sakuranbo are from my province, Yamagata.... They are even in a kiri box - just like expensive knives.


La France (Japanese Pears) NOTE: Again, this particular type of pears is from Yamagata. Proud to be Yamagata-jin (Yamagataer? How can I say "yamagata person" in English, lie Los Angeleno, New Yorker etc?).



La France in a kiri box.

Also we take apples very seriously.

Kotobuki (= Congrats) Ringo

I will admit that I am not willing to pay extra for special shapes. If the $100 watermelon tastes the same as the square $250 watermelon I would go for the cheaper one lol

Exactly what i was thinking lus1:
There are so much variations in fruits and how they harvest.
It is same as with knives and stones some will say we are crazy to buy them that expensive :tease: why not buy one in local walmart for $5

Burl Source said:

I had to click off the video by the time he got past the grapes.
This reminds me of some people who will stop here at times.
Usually driving a beater car, $200 basketball shoes and comment on how only someone crazy would buy whatever it is they are looking at.
Not taking into consideration anything other than the price tag.
They are usually a bit surprised when I tell them to leave and point them towards walmart.

Click to expand...

Now... I'm one of those people who gets hooked on different fruits and eats pounds of it everyday depending on whats good that season. I've been known to travel out of state for apples during autumn. I know my fruits, and have high standards...

Someone gave my mother one of these melon, so I had a chance to try some. My eyes teared up and I thought my cheeks were going on fall off. No joke. These expensive Japanese fruits taste totally different from a normal or an even organically grown fruit. Its a level of sweetness that would honestly be dangerous to have everyday. I think my taste buds would start to reject anything else if I did.

haha guys thanks for the info i had no idea there was gift fruit. something i need to try then, but i mean it better be the best damn fruit i ever had

i have another question. do many ppl in japan buy this fruits? i mean thay cant stay fresh for very long can thay?

As Schtoo said, t's a social status thing. Given as a gift to show immense respect or appreciation, or to impress someone.

Obviously the commentator in the video has no conception of Japanese culture and just proved himself an idiot to the store clerk.

Ty for the posts and the culture lesson everyone. Very much enjoyed it. When I saw the video I was thinking that this was right after the tsunami, making fruit very expensive.

ecchef said:

As Schtoo said, t's a social status thing. Given as a gift to show immense respect or appreciation, or to impress someone.

Obviously the commentator in the video has no conception of Japanese culture and just proved himself an idiot to the store clerk.

Click to expand...

LOL just a little bit. But yea, its strictly given as a gift, potentially as a sign of wishes for good health. (Just guessing the good health.) Ms. Kawano bought different types of fruits from this kind of stores for Mr. Sugai's 86 year old master this year. Him and his wife were very pleased. :]

Sara@JKI said:

Also we take apples very seriously.

Kotobuki (= Congrats) Ringo

Click to expand...

That's awesome.

I'm planting an apple tree.

Mr.Magnus said:

i have another question. do many ppl in japan buy this fruits? i mean thay cant stay fresh for very long can thay?

Click to expand...

Apples with "kotobuki" (congrats) message are for gifts for special occasions - i.e., birthdays and weddings. But other types - expensive ones, kiri box ones and special shaped ones - are for anyone to buy and enjoy (by themselves or with someone)... I'm from Yamagata, so it's an annual event there

I've walked past those melons for years, and wanted to buy one. I will this weekend - I said I would get one when I got my next promotion, and it finally came. Time to break out a $80 melon for the family!

The absolute cost isn't prohibitive, just that the contrast with a regular fruit might make it seem as such. So yes $5 vs $80 for a melon is amazing - hence definitely only on a special occasion basis.