quincy melon

With the use of hothouses here, there are some melons appearing in the supermarkets, I think the normal season is somewhere in July. This melon is called a quincy melon. It is similar in taste to a very ripe cantaloupe (maybe they are in the same family?) and it said to have a high amount of beta carotene. This melon was very juicy and sweet.

I also wanted to show you how price labels look like. On the top, there is a 14% (black arrow), this shows how much natural sugars are in the melon. On the price label itself, there is an area to show where this melon was grown, this one was from Kumamoto (green arrow). The labels almost always have a shomikigen (consume by date) (red arrow). After having several incidents involved spoiled foods, Japan is very sensitive about this date and always throws things out if this date is passed. (You can usually buy things for 50% off on the date of the shomikigen.) Instead of just throwing things out, I tend to go by the "nose test" and keep things past this consume by date. For fresh food items like meats, fish and fruit, they also list the date that the food was cut or prepared (blue arrow). Lastly, the price (purple arrow), a few years ago, the government passed a law that deemed stores to list the price of items with the tax already added in. Not all stores are following this law, so it can be a bit confusing when trying to figure out how much you owe.

When shopping for fruits and veggies, almost all produce sections have their fruits and veggies pre-packed or packaged, there is no handling, smelling, buying "only the good looking" items or weighing them. Most items are already top notch, with little to no blemishes and perfectly shaped. There is no switching of eggs from one carton to the other either, each carton is sealed. Luckily, the cartons are see-through, so you can at least see if they are cracked or not. Oh, and no tasting of grapes either...

Growing up with picking out your own veggies and fruit at the supermarket, I sometimes miss being able to handle or smell them, and I wish they would sell them by weight, so that I don't only have to buy just 3 carrots or 5 asparagus that they have pre-packed. And most certainly, I would appreciate paying less for a deformed fruit or veggie.

Have a great weekend!