China's Fruit Goodness

While I tried to make it a regular habit to include fruit in my diet in America, it admittedly didn’t happen as much as it should have.  To be honest, there weren't many fruits that I really enjoyed.  They were decent and edible enough, but not really something I craved.  When I did consume fruit, it usually had a "topping" - specifically, I ate lots of apples with peanut butter, bananas with peanut butter, strawberries with sugar, or diced up fruit mixed together into a "fruit salad" with sugar and dollop of mayo.  Besides, for all the not-so-greatness, fruit in America is EXPENSIVE!

 

On arriving in China, a beautiful sight that caught my attention  early on is the readily available and countless fruit stands one encounters on a day out.  It is not uncommon to see people walking down the street consuming a freshly-purchased fruit for a morning snack or meal on-the-go. 

 

fruit stand in Sanya Island
 

The fruit in China is SO mouthwatering!  I didn't know apples could have so much flavor!  Slicing a huge orange for an uncommon joining with chocolate chip cookies makes an amazing snack combination!  I've never enjoyed such sweet and irresistible grapes, pears, pear-apples, mini oranges, and watermelon.  China also brought with it some amazing new fruit introductions like dragon fruit, star fruit, pomelos, lychees, little miniature bananas that never go overripe, and my absolute favorite - mangosteens.  And in all it's amazingness, it feels as if you are practically stealing it from the street vendors when you pay about $1.00 for a bag of apples or $0.65 for about a pound of mini oranges with peels that practically fall off (nothing more annoying than a hard-to-peel orange)!  Even my more "expensive" mangosteens were a whopping $5  for 10 splurge.   

 

While staying at Sanya Island, Hainan, China, during our nightly barbeques on the beach, we were approached by "fruit ladies" carrying baskets balances across their shoulders on a bamboo pole laden with fruit, "Mango? Banana? Very good."  And good they were!  Any choice of fruit was a great after-dinner dessert treat. 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many things I miss about America, but when I return home, fruit will definitely be on my list "Things to Be Missed in China."