FoodBanter.com - View Single Post

bob

On Fri, 29 May 2009 21:37:24 -0700 (PDT),
shouted from the highest rooftop:

>I recall reading somewhere that the fruits we get in our local
>supermarket represent only a fraction of a percent of all the fruits
>available in the world. Furthermore, the fruit we do get are chosen
>not because of their taste but more so because of their low price from
>large economies of scale.
>
>So how would one go about sampling all the infinite varieties of
>exotic fruits that exist in the world? I'm sure there must be some
>truly delicious ones out there that we've never heard about!
>
>I'm surprised nobody has thought of opening a fruit bar that only
>sells exotic fruits. Sure the price would be high, but fish is flown
>in from all over the world and that is not terribly expensive. Plus
>fish is a lot more perishable than fruit.

When I lived in Southern California you could get some beautiful fruit
- exotic and otherwise - from specialist fruit & vege stores and
upmarket, boutique grocery stores. Same goes for New York City.

The prices were steep when you're not only paying for top quality, but
for fruit picked a lot more ripe & flavoursome than volume outlets
like supermarkets will get.

The same goes for New Zealand. Exotic fruits and veges are difficult
to find in the small provincial town where we shop. But when we lived
in Auckland, we had a fantastic Indian greengrocer who could source
the best of the best. He was the only person other than myself I'd
trust picking tomatoes for me.

BTW - have you ever been in the fruit & vege business? I have ... as
well as working in a large retail fishmongers. The spoilage with fruit
(and some veges) is far higher than with fish. And it wasn't at all
uncommon for us to put a thousand percent markup on things like fresh
figs and berries to cover the "shrinkage."

--

una cerveza mas por favor ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~