Thursday, November 5, 2009

Hay madroños!

madroños

Today, after this evening's excellent culture class (on Spanish photography), I stopped off at the supermarket in the basement of the Corte Ingles. Where I succumbed to the temptation of buying some juicy madroños, pictured above. After all, one feels a responsibility to one's readers to convey just what it is that the bear in that "oso y madroño" statue is so worked up about.

The madroño experience was a bit like the partridge experience earlier in the week. Now that I've done it, there is no urgent reason to repeat it. For the record, they have a taste and consistency that is quite reminiscent of the kiwi fruit. But kiwi fruit are more delicious.

But now we know what the fruit of the arbutus tree tastes like. Nothing like strawberries, so there appears to be no good reason for the common mixup between both plants. Anyway, everyone knows that strawberries don't grow on trees.

3 comments:

Pb said...

They're no frutas del bosque, eh? I sort of thought they were mythical. Or extinct. But I thought that about huckleberries until eating them in Montana five years ago, so there you go. This Christmas we'll be singing "A Partridge in a a Madroño Tree."

gaelstat said...

Gosh darn it, PB! You realise that I've been going round all day singing "A Partridge in a Madroño Tree" to myself, completely unable to get it out of my head? Earworm city!

Foodivore said...

Like lychees? I'm still struggling to get a fix on them, though I realise trying to 'explain' the nuances of a taste is a ridiculously difficult exercise.