23 Sep 2007, ST
'Exotic' vegetables and fruit are coming on the market
By Huang Lijie
CHEF Jimmy Chok could not contain his excitement when he saw broccolini - a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale - sitting on the shelf recently at the Cold Storage supermarket in Holland Village.
He says: 'I'd read about the vegetable and seen it in books. But I never had the chance to get hold of it and cook it myself. It's not commonly known here so stores don't usually carry it.'
The 37-year-old executive chef at The Academy Bistro in the Supreme Court took a few packets of it home and sauteed the 'sweet and tender' vegetable with garlic and butter.
Indeed, fruit and vegetable importers and retailers have been introducing newfangled produce, such as purple cauliflower and yellow-skin watermelons to the market here in recent years.
For importers like Ban Choon Marketing, bringing in novel fruit and vegetables such as black mission figs from Turkey and broccolini is a way to stand out from the crowd.
Retailers, on the other hand, are stocking their shelves with these 'exotic' produce in response to changing consumer demands, and to cater to the ever-growing expatriate market here.
FairPrice, a chain of 79 supermarkets islandwide, now carries such items as blood oranges from Australia, Yukon Gold potatoes from the United States and even square watermelons from Japan in some of its outlets.
A spokesman says: 'Our customers today are well-travelled and exposed to diverse cultures. Hence, they are better able to appreciate fruits and vegetables that are not commonly found in Singapore.'
And Singaporeans' appetite for exotic mushrooms prompted Dr K.K. Tan, 60, chief executive officer of the year-old mushroom farm Mycofarm, to cultivate foreign strains such as the willow mushroom, which is common in Europe, and sell them fresh.
He says that only the dried version was available here before. The mushrooms, with their spindly stems, are fragile and do not ship well fresh.
Mr Tony Ng, 29, fruit and vegetable department manager of Cold Storage at Great World City, says he began offering Kyoho grapes, deep purple and with a fragrant wine-like taste, at the outlet after Japanese expatriate customers asked for them.
He says: 'Even if some of the exotic fruit and vegetables, such as artichokes, don't sell as well, I continue to carry them at the store because I want to ensure that customers who are interested in buying these produce will not be disappointed.'
To grow the local appetite for novel produce, importers and retailers have been reaching out to consumers by offering in-store product sampling. Brief write-ups are also displayed to create awareness.
These efforts are paying off, given the 5 to 10 per cent annual increase in volumes of imports of novel produce, according to the fruit and vegetable importers LifeStyle spoke with.
FairPrice, for example, recently sold out its entire stock of 3,000 Diana watermelons - a Taiwanese breed of yellow-rind red flesh watermelons named after Princess Diana - a week after the fruit hit shelves here for the first time.
And while these exotic items are more expensive than local fruit and vegetables - from a few dollars for items such as yellow dragonfruit and pearl onions, to a few hundred dollars for the square watermelons from Japan - it has not kept people from buying them.
Housewife Felicia Tan, 44, who recently bought yellow dragonfruit and Kyoho grapes from FairPrice Finest in Bukit Timah Plaza, says: 'I don't mind paying for the novel experience and I plan on buying more of these fruits because they're much sweeter than the ordinary dragonfruit and grapes.'
-----------------------------------
Fruits
Here is LifeStyle's guide to 20 unusual fruit and vegetables to try out the next time you're at the supermarket:
1. Diana watermelon
Origin: Taiwan
Cost: $2.90/kg at major FairPrice outlets, but currently all sold out
Season: End August to early September
Yum factor: It took octogenarian Chen Wun Yu, a famed Taiwanese horticulturalist, 12 years to cultivate this oblong watermelon, which has a thin yellow rind and sweet and juicy red flesh.
2. Gooseberries
Origin: Holland
Cost: $3.50/punnet at major FairPrice outlets
Season: Year round
Yum factor: This tart berry is full of tiny seeds. While you can eat it on its own, this versatile fruit can also be made into jams or used in sauces for savoury meat dishes.
3. October sun pluot
Origin: USA
Cost: $5.60/kg at major FairPrice outlets
Season: September to November
Yum factor: Pluots are hybrids of plums and apricots and are sweet. This medium-sized fruit has a yellow-green skin with hints of a red blush and crunchy yellow flesh.
4. Baby kiwis
Origin: Australia/New Zealand
Cost: Currently unavailable
Season: Early October to mid-November
Yum factor: These sweet kiwis are the size of small grapes, and the exterior is fuzz-free. Just pop the whole thing in your mouth.
5. Black mission figs
Origin: Temperate regions, stocks are currently from Turkey
Cost: $1.89/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: August to November
Yum factor: Larger than normal figs, these figs are prized as the cream of the crop because of their nectarine-sweet red flesh. Eat them on their own or use for tart fillings and jams.
6. Kyoho grapes
Origin: Nagano, Japan
Cost: On promotion for $11.90/400g pack at Cold Storage, Parkway Parade till today
Season: July to September
Yum factor: These large plump grapes boast a sweet, wine-like taste.
7. Princess grapes
Origin: USA
Cost: 59 cents/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: June to November
Yum factor: Unlike the more common Thompson variety, these light green seedless grapes are generally larger, wider and more cylindrical, and have a slight wine-like flavour.
8. Blood oranges
Origin: Australia
Cost: 87 cents/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season:
December to May
Yum factor: The flesh is a deep red colour, reminiscent of blood, and its rind often carries a blush of red. Juicy and sweet, they are slightly less acidic than the usual variety of oranges.
9. The perfect melon
Origin: Nicaragua, Honduras and the US
Cost: $7.95 at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: August to May
Yum factor: These cantaloupes are hand-picked at peak maturity to ensure that the fruit is the sweetest possible.
10. White chaunsa mango
Origin: Pakistan
Cost: $3.90/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: July to September
Yum factor: The flesh is such a faint shade of yellow, it's almost white. It also has a honey-like sweetness and it is almost fibreless, unlike most conventional mangoes.
-----------------------------------
Vegetables
1. Fennel
Origin: Australia/Holland
Cost: $12/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Sweet, mild, crunchy with a slight liqorice flavour, the bulb can be sliced up and sauteed in olive oil or braised. Chop up the feathery fronds and use to flavour soups and stews, or garnish the finished fennel dish.
2. Purple potatoes
Origin: USA
Cost: $3/kg at select FairPrice outlets
Season: End of September to December
Cook it: These potatoes have a naturally creamy flavour and are perfect mashed. Alternatively, use it to make potato chips.
3. Willow mushrooms
Origin: Singapore
Cost: $3.15/punnet at Cold Storage outlets
Season: Year round
Cook it: Firm in texture with a mildly nutty flavour, this fungi works well in stir-frys, or saute them in butter.
4. Broccolini
Origin: USA
Cost: Stocks unavailable at the moment
Season: Year round
Cook it: These tender vegetables are a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale and can be sauteed, steamed or roasted.
5. Celeriac/Celery root
Origin: Holland
Cost: $14.50/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Year round
Cook it: This gnarly root belongs to the same plant family as conventional celery. The flavour is a cross between celery and parsley and its texture is similar to that of potatoes. Add raw, julienned strips to salad or use in soups and stews.
6. Savoy Cabbage
Origin: Holland/Australia
Cost: $10.80/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Because of its mild flavour, this cabbage is versatile and can be steamed, stir-fried or used in soups and salads.
7. Sugar Loaf Cabbage
Origin: Australia
Cost: 65 cents/100g at Cold Storage Great World City
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: This cone-shaped cabbage is sweeter than normal cabbages. Best shredded and eaten raw in a salad.
8. Pearl Onions
Origin: USA
Cost: $7 for a 283g pack at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Smaller than normal onions, these have a milder and sweeter flavour and can be pickled, roasted or creamed. They are also an ingredient in the classic French chicken stew, coq au vin.
9. Carnival cauliflower
Origin: USA
Cost: Currently not in stock
Season: Year round
Cook it:
The orange variety is rich in the beta carotene which gives carrots their orange colour, and has a creamy taste that makes it ideal for soups. The purple variety has a slightly spicy taste and can be oven roasted. The mild green variety can be used in stir-fries.
10. Purple Flesh Sweet Potato
Origin: Vietnam
Cost: $2/1kg pack at major FairPrice outlets
Season: Year round
Cook it: These spuds are full of antioxidants. Cook this purple root the way you would a normal sweet potato, by grilling, frying or steaming it.
'Exotic' vegetables and fruit are coming on the market
By Huang Lijie
CHEF Jimmy Chok could not contain his excitement when he saw broccolini - a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale - sitting on the shelf recently at the Cold Storage supermarket in Holland Village.
He says: 'I'd read about the vegetable and seen it in books. But I never had the chance to get hold of it and cook it myself. It's not commonly known here so stores don't usually carry it.'
The 37-year-old executive chef at The Academy Bistro in the Supreme Court took a few packets of it home and sauteed the 'sweet and tender' vegetable with garlic and butter.
Indeed, fruit and vegetable importers and retailers have been introducing newfangled produce, such as purple cauliflower and yellow-skin watermelons to the market here in recent years.
For importers like Ban Choon Marketing, bringing in novel fruit and vegetables such as black mission figs from Turkey and broccolini is a way to stand out from the crowd.
Retailers, on the other hand, are stocking their shelves with these 'exotic' produce in response to changing consumer demands, and to cater to the ever-growing expatriate market here.
FairPrice, a chain of 79 supermarkets islandwide, now carries such items as blood oranges from Australia, Yukon Gold potatoes from the United States and even square watermelons from Japan in some of its outlets.
A spokesman says: 'Our customers today are well-travelled and exposed to diverse cultures. Hence, they are better able to appreciate fruits and vegetables that are not commonly found in Singapore.'
And Singaporeans' appetite for exotic mushrooms prompted Dr K.K. Tan, 60, chief executive officer of the year-old mushroom farm Mycofarm, to cultivate foreign strains such as the willow mushroom, which is common in Europe, and sell them fresh.
He says that only the dried version was available here before. The mushrooms, with their spindly stems, are fragile and do not ship well fresh.
Mr Tony Ng, 29, fruit and vegetable department manager of Cold Storage at Great World City, says he began offering Kyoho grapes, deep purple and with a fragrant wine-like taste, at the outlet after Japanese expatriate customers asked for them.
He says: 'Even if some of the exotic fruit and vegetables, such as artichokes, don't sell as well, I continue to carry them at the store because I want to ensure that customers who are interested in buying these produce will not be disappointed.'
To grow the local appetite for novel produce, importers and retailers have been reaching out to consumers by offering in-store product sampling. Brief write-ups are also displayed to create awareness.
These efforts are paying off, given the 5 to 10 per cent annual increase in volumes of imports of novel produce, according to the fruit and vegetable importers LifeStyle spoke with.
FairPrice, for example, recently sold out its entire stock of 3,000 Diana watermelons - a Taiwanese breed of yellow-rind red flesh watermelons named after Princess Diana - a week after the fruit hit shelves here for the first time.
And while these exotic items are more expensive than local fruit and vegetables - from a few dollars for items such as yellow dragonfruit and pearl onions, to a few hundred dollars for the square watermelons from Japan - it has not kept people from buying them.
Housewife Felicia Tan, 44, who recently bought yellow dragonfruit and Kyoho grapes from FairPrice Finest in Bukit Timah Plaza, says: 'I don't mind paying for the novel experience and I plan on buying more of these fruits because they're much sweeter than the ordinary dragonfruit and grapes.'
-----------------------------------
Fruits
Here is LifeStyle's guide to 20 unusual fruit and vegetables to try out the next time you're at the supermarket:
1. Diana watermelon
Origin: Taiwan
Cost: $2.90/kg at major FairPrice outlets, but currently all sold out
Season: End August to early September
Yum factor: It took octogenarian Chen Wun Yu, a famed Taiwanese horticulturalist, 12 years to cultivate this oblong watermelon, which has a thin yellow rind and sweet and juicy red flesh.
2. Gooseberries
Origin: Holland
Cost: $3.50/punnet at major FairPrice outlets
Season: Year round
Yum factor: This tart berry is full of tiny seeds. While you can eat it on its own, this versatile fruit can also be made into jams or used in sauces for savoury meat dishes.
3. October sun pluot
Origin: USA
Cost: $5.60/kg at major FairPrice outlets
Season: September to November
Yum factor: Pluots are hybrids of plums and apricots and are sweet. This medium-sized fruit has a yellow-green skin with hints of a red blush and crunchy yellow flesh.
4. Baby kiwis
Origin: Australia/New Zealand
Cost: Currently unavailable
Season: Early October to mid-November
Yum factor: These sweet kiwis are the size of small grapes, and the exterior is fuzz-free. Just pop the whole thing in your mouth.
5. Black mission figs
Origin: Temperate regions, stocks are currently from Turkey
Cost: $1.89/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: August to November
Yum factor: Larger than normal figs, these figs are prized as the cream of the crop because of their nectarine-sweet red flesh. Eat them on their own or use for tart fillings and jams.
6. Kyoho grapes
Origin: Nagano, Japan
Cost: On promotion for $11.90/400g pack at Cold Storage, Parkway Parade till today
Season: July to September
Yum factor: These large plump grapes boast a sweet, wine-like taste.
7. Princess grapes
Origin: USA
Cost: 59 cents/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: June to November
Yum factor: Unlike the more common Thompson variety, these light green seedless grapes are generally larger, wider and more cylindrical, and have a slight wine-like flavour.
8. Blood oranges
Origin: Australia
Cost: 87 cents/100g at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season:
December to May
Yum factor: The flesh is a deep red colour, reminiscent of blood, and its rind often carries a blush of red. Juicy and sweet, they are slightly less acidic than the usual variety of oranges.
9. The perfect melon
Origin: Nicaragua, Honduras and the US
Cost: $7.95 at Cold Storage, Great World City
Season: August to May
Yum factor: These cantaloupes are hand-picked at peak maturity to ensure that the fruit is the sweetest possible.
10. White chaunsa mango
Origin: Pakistan
Cost: $3.90/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: July to September
Yum factor: The flesh is such a faint shade of yellow, it's almost white. It also has a honey-like sweetness and it is almost fibreless, unlike most conventional mangoes.
-----------------------------------
Vegetables
1. Fennel
Origin: Australia/Holland
Cost: $12/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Sweet, mild, crunchy with a slight liqorice flavour, the bulb can be sliced up and sauteed in olive oil or braised. Chop up the feathery fronds and use to flavour soups and stews, or garnish the finished fennel dish.
2. Purple potatoes
Origin: USA
Cost: $3/kg at select FairPrice outlets
Season: End of September to December
Cook it: These potatoes have a naturally creamy flavour and are perfect mashed. Alternatively, use it to make potato chips.
3. Willow mushrooms
Origin: Singapore
Cost: $3.15/punnet at Cold Storage outlets
Season: Year round
Cook it: Firm in texture with a mildly nutty flavour, this fungi works well in stir-frys, or saute them in butter.
4. Broccolini
Origin: USA
Cost: Stocks unavailable at the moment
Season: Year round
Cook it: These tender vegetables are a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale and can be sauteed, steamed or roasted.
5. Celeriac/Celery root
Origin: Holland
Cost: $14.50/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Year round
Cook it: This gnarly root belongs to the same plant family as conventional celery. The flavour is a cross between celery and parsley and its texture is similar to that of potatoes. Add raw, julienned strips to salad or use in soups and stews.
6. Savoy Cabbage
Origin: Holland/Australia
Cost: $10.80/kg at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Because of its mild flavour, this cabbage is versatile and can be steamed, stir-fried or used in soups and salads.
7. Sugar Loaf Cabbage
Origin: Australia
Cost: 65 cents/100g at Cold Storage Great World City
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: This cone-shaped cabbage is sweeter than normal cabbages. Best shredded and eaten raw in a salad.
8. Pearl Onions
Origin: USA
Cost: $7 for a 283g pack at FairPrice Finest
Season: Nearly year round
Cook it: Smaller than normal onions, these have a milder and sweeter flavour and can be pickled, roasted or creamed. They are also an ingredient in the classic French chicken stew, coq au vin.
9. Carnival cauliflower
Origin: USA
Cost: Currently not in stock
Season: Year round
Cook it:
The orange variety is rich in the beta carotene which gives carrots their orange colour, and has a creamy taste that makes it ideal for soups. The purple variety has a slightly spicy taste and can be oven roasted. The mild green variety can be used in stir-fries.
10. Purple Flesh Sweet Potato
Origin: Vietnam
Cost: $2/1kg pack at major FairPrice outlets
Season: Year round
Cook it: These spuds are full of antioxidants. Cook this purple root the way you would a normal sweet potato, by grilling, frying or steaming it.
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