saigon today: Roadside mandarins

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Roadside mandarins

Currently mandarins are fetching between VND 8,000 and 12,000 (under 1 USD) a kilo on the side of many roads around town. This seller was one of many lined up along on Ðiện Biên Phủ st in District 3

10 comments:

Anonymous said...: I don't think these are citrus.; 10 March 2009 at 1:23 pm
USelaine said...: Cool composition, with the passing motorcycle.; 10 March 2009 at 1:53 pm
Lan said...: These are mandarins, just like Simon says they are.; 12 March 2009 at 5:56 am
Unknown said...: They look more like Marian plums to me.

http://gastronomyblog.com/2008/03/18/vegetation-profile-marian-plum/; 12 March 2009 at 3:49 pm
Anonymous said...: Here is another photo of Marian plums.

http://toptropicals.com/pics/garden/05/fruit/6327.jpg; 12 March 2009 at 3:52 pm
Lan said...: No, these are not Marian plums simply because Vietnamese do not eat, and do not grow locally the plums in the delta. Plums and strawberries come from Da-Lat, and the plums are green, spherical and smaller. Fruits from Da-Lat are not very popular for southerners. The photos you see are mandarins. Street vendors sell locally grown fruits, and they are: oranges (green type,) mandarins, guavas, pomelos (best are from Bien Hoa,) arambella, sugar apple, mangosteen and rambutan. Although plentiful, they rarely sell papaya and star fruit in the streets. High price items are apple, grapes and they are rare, but the local don't like them anyway. Longans are well seek after, but they are expensive (best are from Lai Thieu but Thailand has far superior longans.) Litchee are even more expensive than longans because they are imported from China. Pomelos and water melon are required fruits for the new year for ancestor worship.; 13 March 2009 at 4:28 am
Anonymous said...: Despite their name, Marian plums, native to South East Asia, are not true plums, but rather a distant cousine of the mango. Their Vietnamese name is Thanh Tra`; 14 March 2009 at 4:59 am
Lan said...: Sorry to belabor the point, but I think you are not quite accurate. First of all, the Marian plum (a cousin of the mango) is from Thailand, native of Asia, but not of VietNam. The Vietnamese Thanh Tra is a different fruit altogether. Thanh Tra is a species of pomelo (Citrus Grandis L. Osbeck) of the region of Hue that ripens in July-August. You can see some photos of Thanh Tra here:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.amthuc365.vn/upload/de/Buoi.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amthuc365.vn/Phong_vi_xu_hue,52,1086.htm&usg=__LfpdL8aDUByQIa_1YotdFa8xgp4=&h=300&w=400&sz=129&hl=en&start=12&um=1&tbnid=FeVdEBQlGwNG0M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthanh%2Btra%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Marian plums are oblong and not spherical as the mandarins. I am sure Simon is right in the description of his photo.; 14 March 2009 at 8:18 am
Lan said...: OK. I was wrong. These are Marian plums and not mandarins! On very close inspection of the photo, the leaves gave them away. They may be called Thanh Tra in Saigon, but Thanh Tra is also a well known name of the pomelo in Hue. Anonymous and CoffeeBag are right.; 14 March 2009 at 8:50 am
A. Rizzi said...: you must feel smart now Lan!!; 21 May 2009 at 10:32 pm