At long last, here it is: a Shizuoka melon. I got it as a gift, but I know that it was purchased from a Japanese market here in Singapore for S$79 (US$55). Why was mere fruit so darned expensive? Apparently only a few melons are grown on a single tree; others get removed so as to allow the nutrients to concentrate on the remaining fruit.
And the result was a ridiculously sweet, juicy, and tender melon - so tender that a spoon basically went through it like a hot knife through butter. It was all about quality - notice how the shape of the melon was perfectly round. This bad boy yielded about ten slices, making it about US$5.50 a slice, or perhaps even US$2 a bite.Yes, it was unnecessarily excessive (especially in this economy), but without a doubt an absolutely perfect melon in every way. If one hypothetically had enough money to start a meal with some otoro, move onto some wagyu, and then finish it off with some Shizuoka melon, then they'd really have a triple punch of egregiously expensive yet incredibly delicious Japanese ingredients.
8 comments:
Actually it costs over $100-200, I guess.Not kidding. Some of the reasons that it is that much expensive are; just for examples, sometimes you have to make some scars on each melon to make beautiful mesh of a net BY HAND. Also to keep inside of the greenhouses warm, boiler-heaters are permanently ON. costs a lot of money. My neighbor, when I was a kid, was farming this expensive melons.
A melon that expensive would be hard to cut into! I can't imagine.
While I like a good melon, $200 can buy you a much better sensory experience than that.
It's worth every cent, I should say. I first tasted one of these melons in Tokyo back in 2001. I still remembered the sweetness & juiciness of the melon as if it was yesterday. A whole melon at the little supermarket near Shinagawa station costed S$75 each even then - so the prices much have come down since if you're able to buy one in Singapore for about the same amount.
Try the Kyoho grapes! They literally make you drunk!
In hot summer, we used to fill the center with vanilla ice cream. I can't beleve anyone would pay that much for a cantalope or honeydew melon. Like PT Barnum said,"sucker born every min." I enjoy your blog.
Definitely worth the money, and the best ones are JPY 15,000 or more.
I was looking up muskmelon for my recent blog and yours happen to be the number one hit. I happen to live here in Shizuoka and have to admit the melons here are great, and I haven't even tried a muskmelon. Not sure if I want to dish out that much though, even if they are cheaper here (not that much though).
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