Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Fruit...Not Our Strong Suit.

I was choppin up a pineapple just now and damn near collected half a litre of juice throughout the whole process.  So sweet, so tangy, so juicy.  This is the kind of deliciousness that never gets old.  (Shhh, triple chocolate torte you'll have your time in the sun).  Queensland, I gotta hand it to you.  You know how to grow a dang good piece of fruit.  These "little beauts" can be snactched up for only $2.20 at that!!  Let's be frank, since going 'gluten-free' (that's a post for another day), there isn't a lot that gets me excited in the supermarket these days.  Everywhere you look, wheat rears its ugly head.  Even the air is polluted with the sweet smell of freshly baked bread.  I digress. 


Since moving to this luscious, produce producing state, I have staged the revolution on the "I HATE FRUIT" rant, of old.  I know when you read that, you just gasped and said aloud "i love fruit! eat it all the time!".  I know this because ever since I have adopted this mantra, I don't STOP hearing people say this to me as if I'm some kind of hideous beast.  I guess my problem may have been that I was too picky.  For example, I was unaware that a mango was not as hard as a golf ball, and as green as a lime with a little sprinkling of red near one end.  I also didn't realize that they actually taste like your taste buds are having a dance off.    I also didn't realize that they could be purchased for under $5.  Sidenote: My boss has a mango tree and she actually uttered something along the lines of "having so many mangoes they are like pests, I run over about half a dozen of them just driving out of my driveway".  I knew there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house after that anecdote.  Aussies can be a spoiled ppl at times, hahah.
So how did this obscene mentality arise?  Well, when I was younger, I didn't like the inconsistency of "pickin out a good one" and the "ya never know what you're going to get".  Turns out the former 2 statements are most likely the product of growing up in sub-zero temperatures (please refer to a previous post where I talk about the Canadian affinity with the "christmas orange").  What can I say, we have great people, great mountains, make a HELL of a jar of maple syrup, but fruit...it's not our strong suit (okanagan you get the wild card).

This is part of the reason I have always liked vegetables.  Can you ever think of a time when you ate a bite of a tomato, and thought "that tasted TERRIBLE!".  Well, if the answer was yes, then there's the support for the fruit argument again.  It sneaks up on you even when you don't even know it!  (has anyone ever solved that stupid debate on which group the blessed tomato belongs?)

I guess you could call me produce shallow, but but to sum it up, I don't want to go through the hassle of peeling a cranium sized navel orange only to take my first chomp and it tastes like butt.

Alrighty then, I have successfully wasted 1/2 an hour writing about my taste buds, and why I am a supermarket snob...all while successfully procrastinated on my studying.  There is A LOT more where this came from as I am a mere semester deep on about 6. hehehe, saddle up everyone!