Quezi

Golden Kiwifruit (photo by Roger Browne - CC-BY)

The kiwifruit is native to China, and for many years was known in western countries as the Chinese Gooseberry because its shape resembles an oversized gooseberry and its taste is similarly acidic. The name “kiwi fruit” was coined as a marketing term in 1959 by Turners and Growers, wholesale fruit merchants of Auckland New Zealand.

The new name caught on and the fruit became popular. In some countries these fruits are referred to as “kiwis”, which sounds odd to the antipodean ear since in Australia and New Zealand the word “kiwis” refers literally to the kiwi bird and figuratively to New Zealanders themselves.

The common kiwifruit is the Green Kiwi, the Hayward variety which has furry brown skin and green flesh with small edible black pips. These used to be sold ripe and ready to eat, and were very sweet. Later, they were sold hard, but it didn’t matter because they could be “ripened to order”. Kiwifruit keep for months, but you can ripen them reliably overnight by putting them in a paper bag with a couple of apples.

Nowadays though, both kiwifruit and apples are picked and sold so green that this kind of ripening has become unreliable and you just need to take your chances, or develop a liking for the more acid flavor of the less ripe fruit.

Another variety, the Golden Kiwi, has sweeter and softer flesh. The taste is less acidic and more tropical, with an unusual high note. I’d describe it as having an overtone of toothpaste, but it’s really quite delicious and in my opinion far superior to the green kiwi fruit. Golden kiwis seem to only be available seasonally, but I guess it’s just a matter of time before they are sold year-round and rock-hard like the green ones.

Buyers of kiwi fruit may assume that all kiwis are egg-shaped, and indeed those which are destined for export markets are all the expected shape. But if you live in a country where they are grown for export, such as New Zealand, you’ll find that the domestic market gets all the ones that weren’t the perfect shape for exporting. You’ll see skinny ones, round ones, bent ones, double ones, etc.

Coming back to varieties, there’s another delicious variety whose outer flesh is green, tending towards gold and then becoming red in the middle. These are known as Red Kiwis and are not generally grown commercially, but they have a lovely taste so do grab some if you see them for sale.

There’s a smaller variety, about the size of a kumquat, known as the Kiwi Berry and generally sold by the punnet. They have a much thinner skin and you can just pop them in your mouth whole. They’re more expensive to harvest and require more careful handling, so they tend to be expensive but they make an exotic treat.

Except for the kiwi berry, most people find kiwifruit skin too hairy to eat. You can peel the fruit and cut it up, or simply slice it in half equatorially and use a spoon to eat the flesh. Kiwifruit exporters sometimes give away plastic implements having a spoon at one end and a cutting edge along one side. You can pack one of these in your lunch box together with a kiwifruit, which you can then eat without making a mess (the juice can stain some fabrics).

Want to try something different? Poach any fish, or even eel, in white wine with a dob of butter and some thin slices of ripe kiwifruit. It’s quite special, although perhaps a little too unusual to eat every day.

Kiwis have lots of Vitamins C, E and A, plenty of potassium, and high levels of fiber. A single kiwifruit contains the average daily allowance of Vitamin C. An Italian study found eating plenty of citrus and kiwifruit was associated with a reduction in wheezing, night-time cough and chronic cough amongst children.