Strawberry and Kiwi: Why?
July 26, 2023 7:49 AM Subscribe
I wanted a bit more in here about the kiwi marketing push (rather than just the strawberry-kiwi drinks which, yes, were ubiquitous) that made normie Americans aware of kiwis. I remember the first time I saw a kiwi; I had no idea what to do with it. I think we learned about it from TV news, and it seemed like a rare, expensive gem.
They're delicious, but here on the east coast of the US, I can't remember the last time I bought one that was any good. So much of the produce we get is either desperately sad, expensive, or (unfortunately) both.
The kiwi-strawberry combination always made sense to me since they hit so many of the same flavor and texture notes, but maybe that's just because they're forever associated in my mind.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:34 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
They're delicious, but here on the east coast of the US, I can't remember the last time I bought one that was any good. So much of the produce we get is either desperately sad, expensive, or (unfortunately) both.
The kiwi-strawberry combination always made sense to me since they hit so many of the same flavor and texture notes, but maybe that's just because they're forever associated in my mind.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:34 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was just thinking about the strawberry-kiwi soda I used to drink in college from '92-'94. Completely blanking on the brand. I liked it.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:03 AM on July 26, 2023
posted by RakDaddy at 9:03 AM on July 26, 2023
I can recall the first time I saw kiwi fruit, at a bakery in a sort of exotic-foods mall(1) in 1985. It was on a fruit tart, one of those kind that have a crust with some custard or something, topped by glazed sliced fresh fruit. I thought it looked like something from a science-fiction movie. I remember being unsure if I really wanted to eat it.
(1) The place did not last many years. I cannot imagine anything like it being attempted now. In addition to the bakery, there was a guy who roasted coffee, places that sold Turkish and Syrian foods and kitchen gear, forerunners of smoothie and frozen yogurt shops, and what else I can't recall. It was a time when American tastes were abruptly changing, away from the recipes that had an eighth of a teaspoon of pepper in a gallon of soup to Thai curries and Sichuan hotpots, and some weird stuff cropped up at the start of that.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:27 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
(1) The place did not last many years. I cannot imagine anything like it being attempted now. In addition to the bakery, there was a guy who roasted coffee, places that sold Turkish and Syrian foods and kitchen gear, forerunners of smoothie and frozen yogurt shops, and what else I can't recall. It was a time when American tastes were abruptly changing, away from the recipes that had an eighth of a teaspoon of pepper in a gallon of soup to Thai curries and Sichuan hotpots, and some weird stuff cropped up at the start of that.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:27 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
(1) The place did not last many years. I cannot imagine anything like it being attempted now.
On the contrary, a lot of cities still have (or recently have acquired) exactly this; Milwaukee has the 3rd St Market, Minneapolis has the Midtown Global Market, Chicago has an abundance of food halls. I was told there is one in San Francisco but when I was there I ran out of time to go looking for it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
On the contrary, a lot of cities still have (or recently have acquired) exactly this; Milwaukee has the 3rd St Market, Minneapolis has the Midtown Global Market, Chicago has an abundance of food halls. I was told there is one in San Francisco but when I was there I ran out of time to go looking for it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'd never heard of a kiwi until I lived in Germany in the Eighties, and they seemed to be very well known there. I had to be shown how to eat one, which was cutting it in half and using a spoon to scoop the fruit out of the skin. I don't know if that's how they're usually eaten in the US, that's how they were eaten in the families I lived with in Germany at that time.
I don't seek them out. They were never delicious enough to me to be a treat. But I have a very partial sense of smell and a kind of sideways sense of taste and a lot of food to me is about texture. Kiwis don't have a pleasant texture to me.
I'm glad people enjoy them, though! Eating fruit is an important thing that I don't do enough of, kiwis aside.
posted by hippybear at 10:29 AM on July 26, 2023
I don't seek them out. They were never delicious enough to me to be a treat. But I have a very partial sense of smell and a kind of sideways sense of taste and a lot of food to me is about texture. Kiwis don't have a pleasant texture to me.
I'm glad people enjoy them, though! Eating fruit is an important thing that I don't do enough of, kiwis aside.
posted by hippybear at 10:29 AM on July 26, 2023
When I was in 4th or 5th grade in the late 80s, my friend and I used to bike around our whole semi-suburban section of the county pretty much as we pleased. Our favorite spot was just biking a few miles down parallel to the railroad tracks to the local convenience store (no chains had taken over at that point) to get some candy and a soda. I would almost always get a Walkabout Kiwi soda. On the one hand, it seemed really exotic (a kiwi!?), and on the other hand it was really refreshing. It gave me a taste for kiwis early on (ok, not an entirely accurate one). It vanished at some point, and I switched to Mystic strawberry-kiwi for a time until that vanished as well.
posted by Zargon X at 10:36 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Zargon X at 10:36 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
I too first encountered kiwis in the early 80s as toppings for custardy fruit tarts (in the US, DC area to be precise). I remember contesting with friends during the 90s that all these kiwi-strawberry flavor pairings were kind of a scam, because kiwi and strawberry basically share a flavor profile (tart-sweet with bitty seeds) that overlaps to the extent that they are nearly indistinguishable, especially as flavorings. I got a lot of kickback for this opinion back then but maybe the metafilter crowd can back me up on this. To this day I will use the fruit interchangeably. Kiwi shortcake anyone?
posted by St. Oops at 10:47 AM on July 26, 2023
posted by St. Oops at 10:47 AM on July 26, 2023
hippybear: ....how to eat one, which was cutting it in half and using a spoon to scoop the fruit out of the skin.
AFAIK, in the U.S. they are peeled and then thinly sliced, or peeled and then diced. Mostly sliced, though, to show off the ring of seeds.
Eating it like a soft-boiled egg would require that Americans know how to eat (and enjoy) soft-boiled eggs -- which I think is fairly uncommon in this dark age of Toaster Strudels and avocado toast. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2023
AFAIK, in the U.S. they are peeled and then thinly sliced, or peeled and then diced. Mostly sliced, though, to show off the ring of seeds.
Eating it like a soft-boiled egg would require that Americans know how to eat (and enjoy) soft-boiled eggs -- which I think is fairly uncommon in this dark age of Toaster Strudels and avocado toast. :7)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2023
When I was a kid, I was introduced to kiwis in the form of the yknow thin slices through, but with the skin left on. Nobody told me whether or not to eat it, so as with many unfamiliar foods, I ate the skin, too, until someone told me I didn’t have to.
At some point I must have asked my Dad what it was at some picnic or other, and his response sounded like “kingy fruit,” possibly because at nine years old I had never heard the word “kiwi” before, but possibly because he actually called it “kingy fruit.” That sounded as plausible as anything, and definitely more plausible than what a girl at school had called it, which was “kamango.”
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:03 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
At some point I must have asked my Dad what it was at some picnic or other, and his response sounded like “kingy fruit,” possibly because at nine years old I had never heard the word “kiwi” before, but possibly because he actually called it “kingy fruit.” That sounded as plausible as anything, and definitely more plausible than what a girl at school had called it, which was “kamango.”
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:03 AM on July 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well this was a distressing read.
I'm a kiwi. The bird is a kiwi. The fruit is a kiwifruit. I have formative memories of being asked to 'peel a couple of kiwis' in Australia and being horrified.
You can cut them in half and scoop them (in NZ they often come in cartons with plastic spifes optimized for this very task), you can peel and slice them, you can peel them and eat them whole like a boa constrictor swallowing an egg, you can rub the hair off on a teatowel or on your jeans and just bite it like an apple, you can blend them into smoothies, you can chop them into apple crumble, you can make jam...
or apparently you can juice them and mix them with strawberries to get a uniquely disgusting and uniquely American flavor combination.
posted by ngaiotonga at 1:07 PM on July 26, 2023 [14 favorites]
I'm a kiwi. The bird is a kiwi. The fruit is a kiwifruit. I have formative memories of being asked to 'peel a couple of kiwis' in Australia and being horrified.
You can cut them in half and scoop them (in NZ they often come in cartons with plastic spifes optimized for this very task), you can peel and slice them, you can peel them and eat them whole like a boa constrictor swallowing an egg, you can rub the hair off on a teatowel or on your jeans and just bite it like an apple, you can blend them into smoothies, you can chop them into apple crumble, you can make jam...
or apparently you can juice them and mix them with strawberries to get a uniquely disgusting and uniquely American flavor combination.
posted by ngaiotonga at 1:07 PM on July 26, 2023 [14 favorites]
I remember reading a National Geographic article on Kiwis back in the 80s that was quite interesting. I prefer tart kiwis so the popularity of the Golden Kiwis that are just sweet and to me lack any flavour has been annoying because now I've got to check what kind of kiwi it is before buying it. After I heard about hardy kiwis/kiwiberries I've bought them a couple of times but more for the novelty factor than anything else.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:16 PM on July 26, 2023
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:16 PM on July 26, 2023
Ah! The kiwi spife! If you get your hands on one, keep it. I travel with one, it's never been taken by security, and it serves multiple purposes for eating om the go.
posted by St. Oops at 1:32 PM on July 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by St. Oops at 1:32 PM on July 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
Reading this and the comments while, drinking my Snapple Kiwi Strawberry, iced. The prettiest way I like kiwis is on Chinese Bakery fruit cakes.
posted by yueliang at 2:33 PM on July 26, 2023
posted by yueliang at 2:33 PM on July 26, 2023
> you can rub the hair off on a teatowel
I'll have to try that - I've just been eating them whole without epilating them first.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:17 PM on July 26, 2023
I'll have to try that - I've just been eating them whole without epilating them first.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:17 PM on July 26, 2023
I'm a kiwi. The bird is a kiwi. The fruit is a kiwifruit.
Hard agree with ngaiotonga
posted by poxandplague at 11:26 PM on July 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
Hard agree with ngaiotonga
posted by poxandplague at 11:26 PM on July 26, 2023 [2 favorites]
As someone who has lived her entire life on two continents where kiwi fruit is utterly mundane, this comment is wild. Like hearing "they seem to be well known there" about apples or something.
posted by Dysk at 1:44 AM on July 27, 2023
posted by Dysk at 1:44 AM on July 27, 2023
Adjacent? Irish-American friends from California via Mexico were living [on a boat] in deepest rural Ireland in '00s. On the weekly shop in the local supermarket they encountered an employee loading a tray of avocados into the dumpster-trolley because they had gone soft. "We can help you take those away", they said. Graiguenamanagh wasn't ready for avocado toast at that time; but we were there for our pals. This just to say . . .etc.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:11 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:11 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'll have to try that - I've just been eating them whole without epilating them first.
I ate kiwis (the fruit!) in the early 1980s that way. One evening I ate a couple and all of a sudden I broke out in a rash that developed so fast and all over my body that I could watch it spread. Big, red, bulging blotches. Very weird. Didn't itch, but looked apocalyptic.
No one really knew what to do, so I just went to bed and when I woke up it was gone, as if it had never happened.
Had to have been some kind of reaction to the kiwis, most likely some ghoulish chemical on the skin because I have eaten many of them since -- with skin, without, whatever -- with no skin response at all.
posted by chavenet at 2:21 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
I ate kiwis (the fruit!) in the early 1980s that way. One evening I ate a couple and all of a sudden I broke out in a rash that developed so fast and all over my body that I could watch it spread. Big, red, bulging blotches. Very weird. Didn't itch, but looked apocalyptic.
No one really knew what to do, so I just went to bed and when I woke up it was gone, as if it had never happened.
Had to have been some kind of reaction to the kiwis, most likely some ghoulish chemical on the skin because I have eaten many of them since -- with skin, without, whatever -- with no skin response at all.
posted by chavenet at 2:21 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
Wikipedia:
... when frightened, kiwifruit release urticating hairs (setae) in order to discourage would-be predators ...posted by sebastienbailard at 3:12 AM on July 27, 2023
this dark age of Toaster Strudels
what??? I haven't seen a Toaster Strudel since Kiwi-Strawberry sodas were all the rage.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:25 AM on July 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
what??? I haven't seen a Toaster Strudel since Kiwi-Strawberry sodas were all the rage.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:25 AM on July 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
I could absolutely taste this post, and the article. Kiwi strawberry and nineties nostalgia, man.
Unfortunately, it's been well over a decade since I last ate a kiwi fruit. I've turned out allergic to them. They make my mouth and throat feel really itchy. So do raw mangoes (mango lassi is okay) so I don't know what that's about.
posted by SaharaRose at 12:28 PM on July 27, 2023
Unfortunately, it's been well over a decade since I last ate a kiwi fruit. I've turned out allergic to them. They make my mouth and throat feel really itchy. So do raw mangoes (mango lassi is okay) so I don't know what that's about.
posted by SaharaRose at 12:28 PM on July 27, 2023
> So do raw mangoes (mango lassi is okay) so I don't know what that's about.
Maybe pasturization or cooking changes the shape of the protein in the mango that triggers your immune system?
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:51 PM on July 27, 2023
Maybe pasturization or cooking changes the shape of the protein in the mango that triggers your immune system?
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:51 PM on July 27, 2023
How do you frighten a kiwifruit?
posted by traveler_ at 7:50 PM on July 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by traveler_ at 7:50 PM on July 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
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They title each episode with whatever the most memorable quote is from their footage. The first episode was named after one panelist's assertion that one particular beverage most likely tasted unique because "More kiwi, man, more kiwi!" And the second was named after another panelist informed them that they were done with further taste tests: "May there be no more kiwi-strawberry."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:33 AM on July 26, 2023