The Apple of My Eye

I had started a post weeks ago, but it never made it up. I've got a lot of those... would write and then say, wtf, and into the draft bin it would go. But this morning, this morning I was cutting up the most amazing fruit salad, with raspberries from out back, and the watermelon sang to me with its aroma, and the colors were so vibrant, and it all tasted so damn good... it made me think of the donut peaches and how much I love fruit.

Fast question... if anyone has the answer... why do watermelons and cucumbers smell like summer year-round, but tomatoes?? Tomatoes don't smell like summer unless it is summer and they've ripened on the vine.

And now... salvaged from the draft bin....

I bought donut peaches today. I hadn't planned on it, but was at the store, ogling the celery, when a mystical aroma overtook me and led me to a stand of stone fruit. This smell, while kind of nectariney, kind of peachy, could not be attributed to those. It was too early in the season for any of those to smell that good, that enticing... so I circled, until I saw these funky, squat peaches that smelled like heaven. They almost smelled fake... like someone trying to make a new flavor for Smarties.

I picked one up... it was ripe. It held promise. As I was taking it in, trying to locate the name and the price- although at this point, I would have purchased them had they been $10 each - the produce man was walking towards me. He explained and offered me a sample, but I was chewing minty gum and knew any fruit, no matter how wonderful, would be ruined. I said thanks, but I'm buying anyhow.

I love fruit... always have. I like most produce... veggie or fruit, but fruit is somehow more playful, more fun. It's that natural sweetness combined with these wonderful textures and outrageous colors. When I was young, and Santa still came to leave me goodies, there was always some crazed kind of produce in my stocking... I loved it more than the other stuff. I'll never forget my first star fruit, my first Ugli, my first stick of sugar cane. Ok... it's not fruit, but it's still in the magical stocking category for me. I also have fond memories of eating guaba (fruit, not the spider!). Not sure if it's technically a fruit, but it's magical damn it, whatever it is.

And a perfect Asian Pear stands all alone. What is it about those things?? They seem like they're going to have the mealiness of an overly ripe or out of season pear, but they don't. They're incredibly crunchy and yet have this abundant juice that comes out of nowhere... a juice that all at once tastes like butter rum Life Savers and concord grapes with some pear thrown in as an afterthought. I think there's a nut flavor going on in them as well, but can't quite put my finger on it. I often imagine a dehydrated person happening upon the first Asian pear, feeling it and thinking, well this mealy piece of crap isn't going to do me much good, and then BLAMMO!!! Asian pear magic happens and the person is saved! All praise the Asian pear!

As I grew older, I became more particular about my fruit. I had my favorites and those had to be just right... the disappointment from a late winter apple did not make eating the apple worthwhile, and no matter how often Chiquita Banana told us bananas should be flecked with spots, a banana that was flecked with spots was too far gone for me. Bananas should still have some green and shouldn't be too ripe, same for pears and apples. Peaches, berries, and other delicate items were best right off of the bush or tree. There is no way you can ever pick that stuff still unripe enough to hold up to shipping and still guarantee the flavor/texture at the other end. While people may have thought they've had a good blueberries or peaches from the store, they probably haven't.

My lamblets probably had their best peaches when they were in their early single digits. We went to a friend's old orchard... one that used to be commercial, but had been left to its own devices. Chemicals had not been used in years so eating right off the tree was ok. We visited right during peak peach season... a week later and the peaches would have been rotting in the sun or destroyed by insects. They were so ready to be eaten. Picking was about all these peaches could handle. Shipping would have turned them to fragrant mush. We ate endless peaches that day, and then brought home a bunch for pies. Those were the best peaches and best peach pie I've ever had. I can cross that produce conquest off of my list. I have truly experienced the best a peach has to offer. Everything else will pale in comparison.

But the donut peach was close. And it was cute. And it smelled kind of like a natural Smartie. And I got to taste something for the first time again. Yes, I've had peaches, but never a donut peach. Yes, it felt kind of magical.

Comments

[Snag]

I once had an orange in San Francisco like your peaches. Staying at a youth hostel out there, not much money, but enough to buy an orange from a street vendor. Ate it on the way back to my room and it was so, so good, that I went back to get more. By then the vendor had packed up and left. I don't know if I'll ever eat a piece of fruit that good again, and oranges aren't even usually my favorite.

Sometimes I wonder if it was a dream.

[zombie rotten mcdonald]

San Francisco, eh?

I have a suspicion to the reason why Snag's orange tasted so good...

[Jennifer]

Snag- that orange sounds wonderful. Sometimes to I think the ideal produce experience occurs when you're thirstier or hungrier than you realized, add that to an already excellent piece of fruit and blammo... it's one for the produce scrapbook of good experiences. I still have fond memories of a tomato from '78.

Zombizzle... don't harsh Snag's orange mellow! I bet zombies like cherimoyas! They kind of have the texture of brains. No, wait, they smell too good. Zombies probably like durian. They smell like rotting brains. :)

[karla]

Brad and I have a phrase for the experience of otherworldly deliciousness and we stole it from Cicero who said that hunger is the best sauce. I think that Snag's orange just had hunger sauce on it.

[Jennifer]

I know that tomato I had did... same with a ham sandwich I remember from '74. We had spent all day at Warren Dunes... lots of swimming and lots of running up and down sand dunes. Someone had brought sliced ham and wheat bread... just that squishy, not really bread, wheat bread. That was the sandwich, nothing else. It was wonderful. I'm sure it had hunger sauce all over it.

[zombie rotten mcdonald]

one year in college, I was on a low budget cuz financial aid hadn't come in yet. Us Baby architects went on a driving trip around Chicago and other areas, and I spent most of my time at happy hours eating free food.

When I got back to my apartment, hungry as hell and ready to raid my cupboards, I discovered my roommate and another guy had gotten drunk the night before and eaten all my food.

"What?" he said "I'll buy you some food tomorrow." ignoring the fact that I hadn't eaten much in four days.

Another friend was having a party that night. College parties; all alcohol, no food. But those drinks had plenty of hunger sauce on them.

[herr doktor bimler]

Snag needs to write a kids' book about the Magic Fruitshop that is gone without trace when you look for it a second time.

Those flat peaches were just taking off in Europe a couple of years ago but apparently they've been growing in Spain for ages, and as of last year even the English were discovering them.

[Jennifer]

Egads... I'm behind the English on my fruit curve.

[Jennifer]

Snag's currently busy on a pissed unicorn book, but I'm sure he can put the Magic Fruitshop into the queue...