Differences between Ecuador and Germany: Fruit and Veg

I think I'm going to do a multi-part series about differences between Quito and Munich because there are just SO many. It would be a huge post if I did them all in one. So, the first up is fruit and vegetables.

Quito trumps Munich in the fruits category because I can get fresh pineapple, oranges and strawberries year round. But surprisingly, Munich was better in the variety of vegetables I could get and the abundance of farmers markets. Here there are markets, but most of what's sold is not organic although the farms are probably within 150 miles of Quito. In Munich, I had my favorite farmer's market on Friday mornings where I would get my eggs and vegetables. I was more inspired in Munich to try out different dishes because I could get the vegetables there.

The variety of fruits here are amazing though. There is sort of an overall season - fruits that can be found all year, like pineapple, bananas, melons, papaya, apples, pears, pitahayas, passion fruit, coconut, etc. And then there are individual seasons - like Andean lychees was about 3 weeks ago; cherries and plums were in the winter; and we saw strange-looking bean pod fruits around end of January. Most of the fruit is fairly cheap - things that come in bags already packaged are $1, tomatoes are like $0.30, avocados are $0.40, and I can get a pineapple for $1. There are even people who hawk fruit to cars on the street. Coming up - I think we'll do the differences in transportation between the two countries (um, worlds apart!).

Yummy pitahayas!