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Q: Chinese/Asian fruits and vegetables that are better/worse than their Western equivalents?
Here are my picks:
Pomelo over grapefruit (it's bigger and more fun to eat)
Chinese eggplant over western varieties (the skin isn't as thick)
western/Italian tomatoes over Chinese tomatoes (they have no flavor here and are white inside)
What is yours?
I 100% agree to tomatoes, they are bland and awful here.
Potatoes also leave something to be desired. Corn here is what we call "animal feed" in the US - we don't eat that.
As for pomelo and grapefruit, neither one of those atrocities will enter my mouth, I find them repulsive, so I can't really judge.
The general lack of variety of different types of vegetables is often disappointing... I like being able to choose between 10-15 different varieties of potatoes depending on what I'm making, here you have "potato".
As for "better", really the quality of produce here is lacking compared to other places I've been, but what is "better" is the availability of certain things that are difficult/impossible for me to get in the US. Such as: mangosteens, lichi, and certain leafy vegetables.
The almighty dragonfruit over... well, actually, over pretty much everything. We barely even get it at home.
Pomelo is also awesome, and the lychees are much better.
Also, for those who live far out west the grapes and, in winter, raisins/sultanas are epic.
Peaches, plums are worse, Rubarb doesn't exist. Mangos are good and cheap.
BeholdaPaleHorse:
Rhubarb exists,although usually not with added sugar, used in TCM
Scandinavian:
...wait wait, before you rule on mangos. Are you talking about the tiny ones, the smaller, the medium or the large mangos ?
Note. All of them are good imho
TedDBayer:
I like the medium ones. the big green ones never ripened for me, and I don't like waiting to eat something. Buy now, maybe wait 10 days?
In my experience, the bananas in China are much more likely to be bruised and taste slightly off compared to what I'm used to in the US.
Not sure if they're called tangerines or Mandarin oranges....but 桔子 are pretty awesome here!
If you want good tomatoes in China, buy the ones grown in Yunnan Province. Because of the natural advantage of sunlight hours, the sugar concentration is unusually high and the sweetness is perfect. I have heard some worldwide tomato product importers describe Yunnan tomatoes as the best in the world. The small cherry tomatoes from there are to die for!
Mangos, (my favourite food) in the UK we get the huge green ones from Thailand and as Terry Wogan (a radio presenter in UK) said the only safe way to eat them is naked in the shower. In Nanning we get small yellow ones, much easier to peel and eat, much more manageable and just as tasty.
Then we get Lychees, Rambutan and Longan which are very hard to get in the UK all of which I love. To be honest there is that much fruit in Nanning it is hard to know where to start.
Scandinavian:
Thumbs up for Lychee. They are however on the superstition list, if you eat too many you will lose your voice. I have tried to prove this superstition, but am still talking.
Watermelon, nice and very sweet here.
And especially love all the tropical fruits available, even in wintertime
I miss some varieties of apples. the apples here are all generally sweet, great if you want to eat it raw, useless if you want to make an apple pie or similar.
tomatoes, compared to other things from the vegetable section, are expensive, but the main problem is that they are tasteless.
watermelon, tasteless too, but they are most often priced so, being able to eat a lot less money does make up for it
cucumber are most often softer, not as crispy as back home, the rough skin makes them less appealing raw
the big bummer is that there is basically no vegetables I think look to have a quality to be eaten raw, I dare not make a fresh salad. back home, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber etc just needs a quick rinse under the tap and you are ready to eat.
the main positive is the pomelo. I seem to have developed an addiction to this
and I miss being able to buy organic lemon, so the skin can be used as an ingredient in cakes and desserts.
Scandinavian:
the cucumbers are ok, and the fact that I don't want to eat the raw means having to learn to cook them, which is also a great way of eating cucumbers
Mushrooms mostly suck, I like the white button mushrooms, no Portobello or Morels. I found every mushroom I bought had a slimmy texture.
Scandinavian:
I second that. I doubt it would be possible to make a decent mushroom soup in China
I found out recently that I was growing Dragon Eyes. Here in Australia they are called Longan. My organic dragon eyes are to die for. I'm watching my Lychee trees with eager anticipation.
I love the different pears here.
My favorite fruit is pomegranate, which are bigger, cheaper, and much easier to eat here but they don't have quite as much flavor. Of course, it's obvious they're a different variety because they're so light.
I absolutely hate dragonfruit!!! Yuck!
I've been able to try several fruits I'd never seen or heard of at home. It's surprising to see mangosteens so readily available here since I can only get them in juice form at $100/bottle at home.
The tomatoes are just fine here and much cheaper.
I'd never tried persimmons before. I don't know why they're not more popular at home.
There's something next to the durian that is smelly and gross, but I don't know what it's called. It's not durian, though. My boss said it's related to pineapple.
I like pomelo, tangerines, plums and apples in China. Rhubarbs is nonexistent, the same as beet roots (can't make borsch without them) and it is hard to find avocados. Most fruits like strawberries, blueberries and cherries are much more expensive then at home.
