It’s Monday and time to replace the J-Cloth once again.  Out with the old faded blue smelly, and in with the fresh, flat and unsullied.  What spills will it clean up this week?

Well, for starters it cleaned up the shreds of rotten dragon fruit that I had to toss.  We took a road trip last Saturday to a couple of auctions in the Hamilton area and stopped in at the wonderful Farmer’s Market downtown and stocked up on fresh fruits, veg and cheese before heading home.  We hadn’t been to the market there in a couple of years, and our visit reminded me that we shouldn’t wait so long to return.  We purchased some Monreales clementines, Francine mangoes, hot house beefsteak tomatoes and some Gala apples thrown in for good measure.  We also picked up a thin slice of German Tilsit cheese, a semi-soft moist cheese with a pungent aroma and taste which the German vendor described as “a strong stinky cheese.”  She was right! 

I saw the dragon fruit and bought one on impulse.  Five months have passed since our return from China and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we’re deep in China withdrawal.  Memories of what we did on which days in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing are now fleeting and we’re starting to forget what we did where, why and how.  So, when I saw the dragon fruit I thought we’d have it with breakfast the next day.  Pictures of abundant Chinese breakfasts with local fresh fruits would come flooding back and we’d be happy again.  That’s not what happened.  I sliced open the fruit and the skin was much more tender than I thought it would be, but when I cut into it I could see that it didn’t have the bluish-white tinge of the fruit we ate in China but rather it was brownish-white.  My lovely dragon fruit was overripe and I was so disappointed.  Of course it had to travel halfway around the world to get to my cutting board so I decided the next time I’ll buy it from a market where they’re more popular, like in Chinatown.  Nevertheless, if you’re up for a road trip, check out the Hamilton farmer’s market (35 York Blvd., right downtown and attached to the beautiful new Central Library).