Trader Joe's Asian pears

I don't think I had ever heard of "Asian pears" before coming across this promotion in TJ's "Fearless Flyer." It uses words like "enticing," "perfect," and "flavorful."

Those are not the words I would choose. I'd go with "hard," "dry," "tasteless," and even "inedible."

I'm generally reluctant to review produce items here, because there is so much variability that no sample may be representative--and I repeat that caveat here. In fact, I'm willing to grant that the two I bought probably are not representative, because if they were, nobody would ever buy them.

I peeled and cut into the first one just a couple of days after bringing them home. It was dry as a bone--like slicing into, I dunno, a tennis ball or something. Absolutely juiceless. And hard, maybe about the firmness of a raw carrot. I can't remember now whether I spat out the first bite, or gritted my teeth and swallowed it, but the rest of the fruit went straight into Nina's composting.

OK, I thought--I just had not allowed it to ripen sufficiently. My bad.

So I let the other one sit for another ten days or so. I was checking it for ripeness every day or two, using the same criteria I have learned for other pears. But when I told Nina that it seemed to be making no progress, she informed me that they don't ripen the same way. So I decided to go at it.

It peeled easily and at least showed some leakage of moisture while being peeled--a good sign. The firmness had gone down, too, but was still kind of like an apple, rather than the usual softness of other pear varieties. Unlike the first one, I had no difficulty chewing and swallowing the first bite, but like the first one, I had no reason to take a second. It completely lacked any sweetness or any fruitiness. If you took an apple and somehow removed its sugar and all taste of apple, this is what you'd be left with. I have no desire to eat such things, so the second Asian pear got tossed, too.

Will I buy it again? 

Maybe I screwed up. Maybe I bought two bad examples. Maybe I'm too uneducated in how to determine peak ripeness and in how to prepare the fruit. So maybe it's all my fault. But my first two experiences were so terrible that I'm not tempted to repeat them, unless somebody presents me with some powerfully persuasive reason to believe that my next experience would be one helluva lot better.

Nina's View

In my opinion, Asian pears are and always have been a waste of cellulose and water. They are basically just sugar water with some texture and a vague hint of flavor. I have never understood why anyone prizes them—even in Asian cuisines where texture plays as big or bigger a part in food than flavor.

While I think these were probably sub-par samples, even the most exquisite Asian Pear holds no appeal for me. Begone, misbegotten "fruit," I will have none of you!