APPEARANCE 2 out of 5 stars

This pear is humongous. It would take three grown men to eat it in a sitting. Just ridiculous for a pear. Yellowish green skin and brown speckling with white flesh.

AROMA 2 out of 5 stars

None

TEXTURE 2.5 out of 5 stars

Crunchy, airy, slightly gritty, like munching on fine sandpaper only not so weird

TASTE 4 out of 5 stars

Mildly spicy vanilla sweetness

OVERALL 2.63 out of 5 stars

Who would have guessed that this swollen ball of gritty neutrality would taste great? This pear is just a whole lot of fun with a spicy vanilla flavor upon first bite, fading almost immediately with no aftertaste. It made me want to keep biting in to it to get that first initial zing. Yum.

FRUIT

Asian Pear

VARIETY

Unknown (Seuri?)

PEAK

Unknown

ORIGIN

Japan (China?)

GROWN

Fresno, CA

PURCHASED

Farmer’s Market

NOTES

The following names all appear to be fairly interchangeable.  It is the variety that differentiates –  asian pear, nashi or nashi pear, African pear, Japanese pear, Korean pear, Taiwan pear, sand pear, apple pear, bapple, papple, bae li. So who knows what this one is. Let the following conversation illustrate the problem.

Me at farmer’s market: Oh wow – what is this?
Purveyor: It’s an asian pear
Me: Oh – so is that different from this? (pointing to the yellow brown asian pear that I have seen in grocery stores)
Him: um. {blink blink} Well. Yes. That is an asian pear and so is this.
Me: I see. So is this a special kind of Asian Pear?
Him: Yes, exactly. This is a Japanese pear.
Me: Oh cool – so its from Japan. So it is a Japanese Asian Pear then?
Purveyor: Well, its actually from Fresno. But yes it is a Japanese Pear. That Asian Pear over there is actually from Japan.
Me: But the one from Japan is not a Japanese Pear?
Him: No. This one is the Japanese Pear.
Me: Gosh thanks. That just clears it right up!

RECIPES

Morimoto’s Asian Pear Salad
Ricotta Stuffed Asian Pear with Cinnamon