pineapple spiral

The Spring and Summer seasons of Beijing meet with street intersections laden with vendors selling wares of pottery, services... and fruit.

oh, pineapple quarters: real sweet treat

For the affordable sum of ¥1, the common people pause on a typical afternoon to enjoy a quarter of a pineapple on a stick - a cooling and tangy refreshment to ward off the dryness and heat of Beijing.

The vendors wheel their goods up to the street curb, pull off a tarp that covers a bounty of fresh fruit, and set blade into action.


fashion meets function

The carving of pineapples is an art.

It is also a very efficient way to carve the pineapple, for the waste removed is minimized, so as to maximize yield. It is done with the fluidity of hands well-practiced and technique well-harnessed.


grandma knows best

My Grandmother grows a score of pineapples in her Floridian yard each year, saving the plumed core and replanting it for an ever-giving harvest. It is only with patience that one raises their own pineapples, and experience warns that a pineapple picked in haste is even slower to ripen.

The perfect pineapple is ready for eating when a tender leaf can be easily plucked from its center; lifting a pineapple so, its own weight should release the leaf.

With this in mind, it was time to try my hand at this art of carving pineapples and see if I could tame this flowering fruit in my very own kitchen.


do try this at home

I set out to pick up a small, but well-ripened pineapple at the local supermarket, which ended up sweet-talking a mere ¥4 from my wallet:

fibrous green plumes and plumply golden flesh

The first task is to fashion the wild mess of leaves into a handle:

trimming of the leaves: the handle

Remove the loose leaves that do not stay tight at the core, useful as a handle during the rest of the carving. Be careful not to cut too deeply at the base of the core, lest your *handle* snap at a later step in the vigorous progress (ask me how I know!)

Using a long, sharp [butcher] knife, graze the outside of the fruit, careful to minimize the removal of worthy flesh.

a shave gets down to the bare stubble

the tool rules

At last, I happened upon the unique tool at a local market (¥5), made specifically for carving pineapples. I decided to take it home and see for myself just how hard it is to carve up a beautiful spiraled pineapple:

3 remarkable teeth, 1 remarkable tool

Not surprisingly, the actual technique and process of carving is not as easy as the vendors make it look. Yes, it must only be learned the hard way: sheer first-hand experience.

nose pointing down, teeth digging in

I also discovered that a secret may lie in selecting a ripe, yet firm, fruit. I chose the pineapple shown here based on ripeness alone. While in this state, it would carve up just fine with a knife, it rendered itself too juicy to handle the firm pushing demanded by the tool.

Nonetheless, even a 'new hand' (新手）, with a bit of luck, will find it possible to obtain satisfactory, if rudimentary, results:

the spiraled pineapple: sweet success!

I have learned a thing or two about carving pineapples: What may be ripe for the tasting may be too supple for the carving.

And 'lo, though I am not a master carver -yet- my taste buds will never know the difference!