My Asian Pear isn’t Asian. It was grown in Chile. There’s a sticker on it, right there by the navel, proudly stating that it’s from Chile. I’ve been wanting to eat it, but somehow I just set it down on the cutting block, looking closely at the delicate, skin-like texture of its surface, the vaguely erotic navel, and perfect spherical shape. Even the shadow it casts is softly blue on the white countertop. I think of hot fields, and wet feet. Stunted trees reach out like brambles toward a distant blue sky. The sloshing of limbs in water, phonemic, and incomprehensible plosives and phonemes call back and forth as the branches rustle, and the fruit is picked.
The Asian Pear is a hybrid, a cross between the ordinary pear and an apple. Just before they are considered ripe to eat, the flesh of the fruit will break away in crisp chunks between your teeth as you bite into it. More crunchy, and less juicy than a pear, or even an apple, the Asian Pear is a delight indeed.
Only mine was grown in Chile. Somehow it seems wrong in my mind to imagine farm workers walking the misty hillsides filling rough sacks slung over strong shoulders, ponchos and cowboy hats, musical singing and speaking in Spanish as the golden spheres are harvested. Perhaps a mule rubs himself dramatically against a tree, or a fence.
This is a Chilean-Asian Pear, and we truly live in one world.
2 Comments
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Well you’re buying it out of season silly so of course it’s from Chile. It’s a Northern Hemisphere Autumn fruit so buy it in Autumn to get a real Asian one (well at least a Washington one). : )
If you want local seasonal stuff cherries should be looking pretty good right about now. Strawberries too. Sweet peas for flowers. If you go to the Ferry Plaza market on Saturday you should feel intoxicated by the smell of sweet peas!
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WOW! I will never look at an Asian pear the same again! :)