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Fruits of the season

May 9, 2008

Mango season is ending.  But it’s time for longkong and kulen.  When I go to the local markets to buy fruits, it’s amazing – the bounty and colors.  I also have the urge to caress them, feel the textures, and imagine the feel of colors on my palm.

Local fruits come from villages and rural farms: light brown skinned mien (longan to foreigners) with its saccharine, soft translucent flesh and hard dark brown and round pit; spiny kulen prey the shape and color of which reminds me of cockroaches; crisp green and sour potrie from backyards and small orchards; pale yellow phniew, soft but with enough body to remind me of men’s balls without the muskiness; small cheyk pong moan which literally means banana chicken egg, or the equivalent of senorita; kroicht thlong or pomelos from Battambang, excellent for salads or eaten with a slight sprinkling of salt and sold to passersby along the riverside; the refreshing juice of Battambang oranges; delicious manuwah or pineapples and the ubiquitous kroichma, the Kaffir lime.

Others have to be brought in from neighboring countries: flesh-colored longkong or lanzones, always sweet coming from Thailand as are the green mangoes that when peeled are equally rich in sugar.  Red thick fleshy skins of delicately-flavored dragon fruits harvested from cacti grown in Vietnam – pale white meat dotted with innumerable black spots.  Are these pits that are unable to germinate? Pale yellow round pears and small apples from China; larger ones from Japan

And then there’s me and my friends – non-native, sweet and sour in unequal proportions

Posted by mgm at 11:51 am | permalink

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