Apples are my favorite fruit, no matter what country I happen to be living in at the moment. Whereas grocery store apples tend to be hit or miss in the US, and only orchard apples have any really dependable flavor, in Japan they're all wonderful, and you will never, ever find a mushy red delicious or a watery macintosh. I like some varieties better than others (okay, I'll confess that I have gone home without apples at all when there were no
Olins to be had), but really there's no such thing as a Japanese bad apple. Best of all, unless you accidentally pick up one of the gift-fruit apples (which tend to be giant and individually wrapped in protective foam), you won't pay that much more than you would in the states, about a dollar an apple.
Here is a Japanese pear, a
nashi. I got four pears this size - the gigantic, gift-worthy size - for just three bucks from my neighborhood slightly-injured-fruit stand. There's nothing wrong with the pears at all, except for a little cottony-ness in places that probably disqualified them from being sold as perfect, expensive gifts. They taste like nectar and are pure white inside, gushing with juice. Unfortunately, the only Asian pears I've ever seen for sale in America were tiny and hard as rocks, but if you ever have a chance to try a ripe one, don't miss the opportunity!
Here's a pair of my beloved
Olin apples. Most apples in Japan are grown in Aomori prefecture in the north, and I don't know if it's something in the soil or in the air there that makes the apples taste so good, but they're amazing. The skin has its own sweet-sour flavor, and the inside is redolent of citrus and cloves. They're crisp, crunchy, and perfectly balanced. I eat at least one and sometimes two a day when they're available. Happily that's most of the year, though they start to get scarce mid-summer through the new harvest in September. Fujis are available all the time, but ... I'm an
Olin addict, and nothing else is quite the same. I usually don't buy any other kind of apple at all, though if
Mutsus, another green variety, are around (they are extremely rare and usually cost more than others) I'll get a few for their absolute smoothness and pure, sour-apple flavor. But to be honest,
Olins are still the best.
Apples are my favorite fruit, no matter what country I happen to be living in at the moment. Whereas grocery store apples tend to be hit or miss in the US, and only orchard apples have any really dependable flavor, in Japan they're all wonderful, and you will never, ever find a mushy red delicious or a watery macintosh. I like some varieties better than others (okay, I'll confess that I have gone home without apples at all when there were no Olins to be had), but really there's no such thing as a Japanese bad apple. Best of all, unless you accidentally pick up one of the gift-fruit apples (which tend to be giant and individually wrapped in protective foam), you won't pay that much more than you would in the states, about a dollar an apple.
Here is a Japanese pear, a nashi. I got four pears this size - the gigantic, gift-worthy size - for just three bucks from my neighborhood slightly-injured-fruit stand. There's nothing wrong with the pears at all, except for a little cottony-ness in places that probably disqualified them from being sold as perfect, expensive gifts. They taste like nectar and are pure white inside, gushing with juice. Unfortunately, the only Asian pears I've ever seen for sale in America were tiny and hard as rocks, but if you ever have a chance to try a ripe one, don't miss the opportunity!
Here's a pair of my beloved Olin apples. Most apples in Japan are grown in Aomori prefecture in the north, and I don't know if it's something in the soil or in the air there that makes the apples taste so good, but they're amazing. The skin has its own sweet-sour flavor, and the inside is redolent of citrus and cloves. They're crisp, crunchy, and perfectly balanced. I eat at least one and sometimes two a day when they're available. Happily that's most of the year, though they start to get scarce mid-summer through the new harvest in September. Fujis are available all the time, but ... I'm an Olin addict, and nothing else is quite the same. I usually don't buy any other kind of apple at all, though if Mutsus, another green variety, are around (they are extremely rare and usually cost more than others) I'll get a few for their absolute smoothness and pure, sour-apple flavor. But to be honest, Olins are still the best.
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