SC - Re: Wierd but Cool Kitchen Gadgets

[James Prescott]

Audrey wrote:
>The core of pineapples is hard because they're not ripe whey they are
>shipped... When you buy a pineapple that was picked ripe (I travelled to
>Costa Rica), the core is as soft as the rest of it, and there's no point in
>removing it. But when they ship pineapples here, they're far from ripe and
>the core is hard.

True, this was also the case when i lived in Indonesia. And if you 
didn't eat them soon after you bought them, they'd be fermented by 
the next afternoon.

>I can't eat the fresh pineapple here. Well I can eat them, but I get a weird
>reaction on my tongue. I guess I'm allergic... I get that with kiwis also.
>But only the ones shipped here. I had no problem with fresh pineapple in
>Costa Rica, at all. I guess it may be something in the fruit that goes away
>when it's ripe, or it's something they use to make it ripen faster, I don't
>know.

It isn't anything that is added to the pineapple. It is something 
natural in the pineapple and kiwi. I don't think it's just the 
enzymes. It's a genetic passed on sensitivity. My mother has the same 
reaction very strongly with both pineapples and kiwis. I have a mild 
version of it. And same with me, pineapples picked ripe didn't bother 
me, but picked hard pineapples in the US do.

Anahita