Kiwis

Bit of a hiatus on my food journeys at the moment.

Been absolutely knocked out by strong antibiotics while nursing a respiratory tract infection. The doctor suggested I should eat bland food in the meantime. On hearing which, TP remarked, 'Shall I cook then?' Well he has. Oven-cooked some readymade lamb mousaka! Not a bad effort!

I've just had some kiwi fruit as a starter. It's supposed to be rich in Vitamin C and the potassium content is just slightly less than bananas.

Bright green lush fruit. I like the patterns in it. And I like the sharp tangy sweet fresh taste on my tongue. It makes me think of beach and sunshine and cocktails. Not that I'm a big fan of beach holidays. I would get incredibly bored I think, and restless. But, I can just close my eyes and imagine sitting on a beach right now, and feeling the sunshine pore through my toes in the sand.

It is so fascinating that certain foods have such strong associations and capacity to evoke such strong sensations, memories and images of places. Isn't it?

I'm also fascinated by the journey that the kiwifruit seed once made from Southern China to which it was native, taken to New Zealand in 1906 or so by some missionaries to a Christian school, planted by a New Zealander and since then grown in New Zealand and taken its name from it. The fruit isn't really grown in China anymore except in certain areas of Eastern China around the Yangtze river. Did you also know that it is very difficult to pollinate the kiwifruit plant as the bees do not find its flowers especially attractive? Fussy little things.

I remember back in India a long time ago, kiwi was such a novelty fruit. You didn't see kiwi fruit in any normal fruit stalls on the street corners. This must have been 15 or so years ago but I remember going to a posh wedding and marvelling at all the exotic fruit that was on offer there. Things have moved on, and now I think it isn't even that exotic in India anymore, let alone in the supermarkets here in the UK.