A Fresh affair of sorts

P1040780 [320x200]orangesSome days I struggle for things to pop into my mind to write about, other days I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I wish to tell. Yesterday was one of those other days. I wish my memory was such that I could line the topics up and write them down for future reference, but alas…. I already do this and cannot remember where I put the damn note book, or perhaps have lost it. Perhaps some of my readers can remind me of topics they were waiting for???? Hmmm??? If you find it, get it back to me… It has all my flight info…..Anyway…. I went to the market today to buy oranges. I went solo and had one or the most ego boosting days in my life. You may have noticed that in the past, I have mentioned that I get a lot of marriage proposals. Yesterday set a new record. I received a record 6 orangemarriage proposals. It all started with some smart ass calling out in Vietnamese to me that he had a lot of women who needed a husband. He had no idea I understood him, however, fore some reason he confronted me directly and asked in Vietnamese if I wanted a second wife. I answered in Vietnamese that one wife was enough when it happened!!! I became an instant hit with the whole market.pomello I had women come from other booths to poke and prod at the unusual westerner. It was a lot of fun. Some came and laid their heads on my shoulder playing cute. Others jokingly laughed out questions and then erupted again in laughter when I responded. All in all…. Just another adventurous day in Vietnam. Sometime I will have to try to describe the culture and the acceptance of this second wife thing,orange1 but that will take a full page.

 I have never been a big fan of oranges, but since coming here I have discovered that there are many different kinds of oranges… Not just the naval and mandarin that I was used to. Some are good for only squeezing and drinking, others good for plain eating. I now like oranges, and many other fruit. I had no idea fruit was so good. In Canada, of course you go to the store and you see the signs FRESH FRUIT… but I have discovered it is not all that fresh. Here the fruit still has the green leaves attached to show the degree of freshness and I have orange2to say that I never expected such a difference in taste. When you buy bananas, you have to decide which kind. I have noticed at least 4 different kinds with various tastes. There are many unique fruits here that have exotic tastes. I only have photos of a few of the exotic ones. I will try to remember to include other photos in future posts. I found a fruit stand that I liked and after telling The shop keeper I was not available for maggaige, we got down to negotiating price. She stunned me quiet with the first price being exactly the correct low price I usually have to negotiate of sixty cents a kilo. watermelonI told her since she was honest with me, I would always buy my fruit from her. She told me I was so handsome, she felt she had to give me a good price. (Insert blush here) I decided to takepineapple some pictures to put on the blog. She was laughing and smiling all the time. She insisted I include her in a couple of photo’s. As I snapped the shots, she would freeze and become serious, just to unfreeze after the shot. What a funny gal. Anyway, about the fruit in the pictures. You will recognize the apples, oranges, watermelon and pineapple. The others are mango, thanh long (dragon fruit), bell fruit, and pomello. There are many variety of mangos and here they are plentiful. Many local homes have mango trees in their yards. It is a very good shade tree. Pomello is a citrus fruit with a flavor that is somewhere in between an orange and a grapefruit. It has a pleasant not to sweet and not too sour flavor. In North appleAmerica, around the Christmas season is when they will be plentiful. Try to find thin skinned and heavy for their size. There are two kinds, a red meat and a pale yellow meat. The pale yellow is the mildest tasting. mangoThe red more grapefruit like. Dragon fruit are one of the most exotic looking fruits. It grows on a succulent similar to a cactus. The red skin is about one quarter of an inch thick and inside is a crisp flesh similar to watermelon, but has a mild kiwi like flavor. The last in the photos is bell fruit. They have a crisp fresh feeling meat with a mild apple like taste. I will do more on fruit and other foods soon.bell

Dragon fruit

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “A Fresh affair of sorts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *