I feel like I need a colonic treatment after the last two posts, hahaha, so I decided to just have fruit for breakfast today. I am trying to take in sea air to get rid of the bronchitis and on the drive out to Batangas yesterday, I noticed a couple of newly picked honeydew or green melons at the Toscana farmstand in Silang, Cavite. The saleslady assured me they were sweet, and were picked just hours before (the pliable green stems seemed to prvoe her assertions). So I bought two melons. I am usually disappointed by melons grown locally, but hope springs eternal, and I buy them frequently nonetheless. Well, these were a pleasant surprise, incredibly juicy and quite sweet. A solid 8.0 or even 8.5 on the melon scale, and certainly one of the best I have had from a local source this year.
At PHP90 a kilo, they seemed reasonably priced as well. I ate 1/4th of melon for dessert last night and another fourth with my fruit plate at breakfast. I also had a couple of sections of pomelo which was superb and some seeded grapes (that were labelled seedless)… At any rate, if you come across the Toscana melons or their roadside stand, you may want to get a melon or two. I am not sure if they market these in Manila, but they were delicious!
23 Responses
Your pomelo stole my heart!
MC, it was superb, juicy and sweetish. It was also PHP90 a kilo and I am kicking myself that I didn’t buy more. Mango, Pomelo and Mangosteen are my three favorite tropical fruits.
That’s one good looking melon..
The fruits look so fresh and inviting, I can taste it.
i buy melons (the golden honeydew kind) from Candaba, Pampanga @ P30-40/kilo. and they are extremely crisp and sweet. YUMMY!
Thai Pomelo salad comes into mind….
gotta find some. fast!
What a refreshing post! And nice pictures to boot! I’m sure the Batangas breeze will blow the bad virus away. Have a nice weekend!
Hey MM, I have another curious question…Do we have double cream here in Manila? Wala no? I’m afraid to even ask if we have clotted cream… =T
i remember the much vaunted melons of the japanese. they take them very seriously and revere them so much that they really fetch a very high price.
paula, surprise, surprise, there is clotted cream and double cream here. A local hacienda Macaluan brand that delivers in makati has it, unfortunately, I don’t have their number here where I am at the moment. Maybe they are on directory assistance? Also, S&R does carry thickened and pure cream… yum! Lei, yes, the Japanese are SERIOUS about their melons. kylie, HOW LUCKY you are… most of the melons I find in Manila are not terrific and quite expensive.
Sorry, MM off topic.
I got so bitin with the poll :p
Will there be a separate post for this ZTE scandal?
Looking forward to it, if there be any brewing…
sometime lurker…sorry, I am steering clear of that until more is known. I was just annoyed with the whole here goes another scandal and there goes somebody goes on a well-timed vacation. Obviously, my sentiments are shared by 85% of the readers. But I have nothing to add other than what you hear in the senate discussions…
are honeydew melons tropical fruits? if yes mm, my three favorite tropical fruits are honeydew melon, pomelo and mangosteen too :)
suzette, you know, I don’t know off the top of my head… hmmm, let me look around. I know I did a post on this before… suzette, this link suggests that melons are tropical and originally from the African continent… if that helps…
Why is it that the honeydews we get here in LA are so bland.
oh, I want the pomelo.
I was in Manila recently and I was disappointed that most of the fruits I saw at the groceries were apples, grapes, oranges, kiwis—mostly foreign. And I was craving for mangoes and lanzones! I was surprised and disappointed that the better lanzones are the ones that come from Thailand and cost Php 400 a kilo versus the local ones which were Php 100. Why can’t our local farmers keep up with foreign competition especially the ones that come from Thailand and Vietnam? Didn’t we train them at our local schools?
Buying local fruits is like opening “a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”. Wouldn’t it be better if the ones that produce the good kind— like the Toscana melons and the ones from Candaba, can be branded—like Dole and Del Monte or even the Mexican mangoes—so that you look for these ones when you shop and get assurance that you are buying the same quality as the ones before.
cwid, yes, I agree with your sentiments in general around local fruit. However, on a positive note, we are beginning to brand, as with Nenita pomelos, Dole pineapples and other fruits, Toscana melons and tomatoes, Dizon Farms fruits, etc. You just have to hunt them down, they aren’t always in all groceries. marie, maybe the honeydews were picked way too early so they could be shipped? The closer the melon is to the vine and picked ripe, the better…
i’m a big tropical fruits fan and my favorites are papaya, tropical gold pineapple , rambutan, pomelo and bananas. i love mangosteen too but they’re just too expensive in manila. i’ve taken to buying branded fruits because there are less chances of getting bad ones and even if they’re a little more expensive than those bought at the wet markets, i figured i get more value for money by being sure of their quality. dizon, dole and nenita rarely fails in this regard. i’ve never tried toscana though and will now be in the lookout for it.
I wonder if the much-vaunted bagsakan ng bayan of the dept. of agriculture (DA) will carry these delicious tropical fruits. kasi i read somewhere that DA will be putting up these markets in barangays. if DA can source their produce from the municipalities that have a surplus then us city dwellers can enjoy them at much lower prices. sana mag-concentrate naman sila sa vegetables and fruits. calling DA Secretary Arthur Yap!
Being in Mindanao is surely an advantage when it comes to fruits…as of today i went to the palengke to buy veggies nd fruits from the taboan and plump sweet lanzones are as low as 20.00/kilo,American papaya 15.00/kilo,Dole Papaya(the small,plump,orange-fleshed,sweet papayas)10.00/kilo),watermelon 15.00/kilo,mangosteen 20.00/kilo,Sweet Mangga Cebu 35.00/kilo and big lkatn bananas go for 15.00/kilo….being on a fruit diet isn’t hard here. ^_^
MM – you know what, our fruit suki has this weird type of melon that taste so delicious! It’s HoneyDew that’s a size of a Papaya. It’s sooooo sweet – no exagerration. The price though is about Php250.00 – Php300.00 a pop. Expensive noh?
I’d love to share one to you when its available. It’s actually a trial and error – and so when we do find it really good – we hoard!!
i love having fruits for breakfast, specially mango, looking in your photos makes my mouth water! :)