How to Enjoy the Deliciousness of Fruits！
Date：2009-12-31
Taiwan produces a great variety of such delicious fruits throughout the year as strawberry and pineapple in spring, mango and watermelon in summer, pomelo and carambola in autumn, or jujube and wax apple in winter. These fruits are so delicious that foreigners are reluctant to leave the county after tasting them. And just like top red wine, you can enjoy the elegant aroma, color and aftertaste of Taiwanese fruits.
Excellent environment for growth in combination of cultivating technology has gradually attracted the world community’s attention to Taiwanese fruits in recent years. Even Ms. Yeh Yilan, founder of the website “Yilan: A Player of Gourmet Life” and a gourmet travel writer who has tasted delicious foods around the world, has praised that “For the same fruit, the Taiwanese one feels finer in mouth than its Thai counterpart and its rich flavor, aroma and sweetness is similar to desserts. The cost performance of a plate of fruit charged for 1,800-3,000 yen (about NT$650-1,090) at Sembikiya, the top fruit parlor in Japan, is even less than a plate of fruit sold for NT$60 in fruit parlors in Tainan, Taiwan.”
Taiwanese Fruit Farmers Are Real Masters
After visiting many orchards in Taiwan, Ms. Yeh found out that the wisdom of Taiwanese farmers in fruit cultivation is really beyond imagination. For instance, farmers in Sanshing Township, Yilan County have invented the method of using tiny umbrellas to protect pear flowers against rain for fearing that the pollens will be washed away or the flowers be damaged. Only when the fruits are produced on spurs, farmers will remove the umbrellas for the fruits to grow with rain water into the famous sweet and juicy Sanshing General Pears.
Chu-fong grapes had originally been harvested just once a year, but after observing the weather and vine growing habit for a long time, Taiwanese farmers discovered that they could make vines proliferate and grow faster by trimming them and creating “slightly adverse circumstances” for dormant sprouts. Thus, they have developed the skills to grow Chu-fong grapes twice a year and produced grapes with different flavors in summer and winter.
In-Season Fruits Are the Most Delicious
How can we identify and taste good-quality Taiwanese fruits? Ms. Yeh said in-season local fruits are the most delicious 
because fine fruits can only grow from the right land in the most appropriate season following the law of nature. And fruits not in-season are probably grown with some special skills or have been preserved for a long time. They may not taste as good as seasonal fruits and are sold at higher prices because of higher production costs.
“Sweetness” is not the only index of appreciating fruits. Just like top wine or Toro, fine fruits can be appreciated from several aspects. Ms. Yeh suggested that we “can appreciate fruits from their color, fragrance, taste, exterior and shape.” For example, pineapples sometimes send forth fragrance like passion fruit or litchi; although winter Chu-fong grapes are more sour than summer grapes, but its sourness can supplement the grapes’ refreshing sweetness to make their taste finer; aside from peeling them to be eaten, we can also rub and squeeze indigenous mangos and use straw to suck their pulp, or slice them to eat more daintily; and just like cut vegetables, slice fruits along their lines can exude their special flavor.
Processed fruits can also be tasty
In addition to eat fresh fruits, processed fruits can also become unexpectedly tasty. For example, people seldom eat fresh indigenous pineapples because they are too sour, but they are indispensable when cooking chicken with pineapple and bitter gourd or pineapple tea; although the appearance of indigenous carambola is not likable, but only stew it can make the best carambola juice. While consumers can taste diversified flavors of processed fruits, farmers are also able to have more ways of making profit by processing fruits, and expand their business and more easily export their products.
If we know more about the distinct features of different fruits, we can enjoy their delicious taste from several dimensions and also become more healthier.
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