Very interesting, Kerouac. Your post made me think of Satsuma oranges and then I remembered that in Japan and Korea I have seen fruit (melons, etc) packed up in fancy wrappers for gift giving. I think that may be more of a tradition in those countries....

In China I noticed beribboned gift boxes of foods like Nescafe and Maxwell House coffee jars!!

Now THERE"S an idea!!!!

EK, with the price the Japanese are charged for some of the produce, it should not only have a ribbon but come in a Tiffany Blue box (or Cartier Red or Hermes Orange ...)

!!!!

WOW! What a hornet's nest I stirred up. The trip begins tomorrow so if we can get limes out of Florida, we'll take some key limes & Star fruit from the backyard trees. The oranges actually haven't been that great so far. The idea was just to bring something from home, rather than something we could buy in the airport or any store on the way. Thanks to nolefan for the alert on the citrus canker. I'll let you know how it all works out.

You're lucky to have real key limes - you don't see that many trees. My sister once had a neighbor with a couple of them, and I got to mail home a box to make a genuine fresh key lime pie - quite a different animal (or vegetable) from the "other" lime.

You're right, they are different. It's weird, they are ripe when they turn from lime green to yellow.

I'm happy to report the star fruit & key limes traveled well & were well received. However, the peanut butter set off something in the x-ray machine & they had to search the suitcase. I was actually asked to bring peanut butter (to France) as I am told it is hard to find & expensive.
Thanks for all the help.

Maybe the peanut butter was made in China and had too much lead in it?

More likely scenario: The peanut butter made in the USA had too much e-coli in it.

Or was it American organic spinach, or maybe ground beef?

Mimmel,
Feel free to bring me oranges from Florida whenever you come to visit me in Alabama! I order Indian River fruit from the high school math team every year when they do their fund raiser, as well as pecans (although I think those are actually from here in Alabama). They are a welcome addition in my household and my in-laws household where I send some as a gift!

P.S. I'm glad the star fruit and limes were appreciated--I think anyone with class is happy to receive a hostess gift of any kind, especially in this day and time when many don't bother at all!

Thanks for reporting back!

If the oranges are fresh picked, then the taste will likely be much superior.

Grapefruit in my old neighborhood were always picked before Christmas, but my folks would never consider them to be ripe until Feb.

I haven't started eating the oranges off my trees in Phoenix yet - perhaps another couple of weeks. The California one I ate last week was not nearly ripe

bigtyke, the issue with citrus being shipped and packed (even to stores and farmer's markets) is that they are picked long before ripe so there is no spoilage or rotting in the packing. Then at some point they are usually gassed to turn the color, but they are never really tree-ripened and have little resemblance in taste to the real thing.

Don't get me started on tomatoes. We live in one of the major tomato growing regions of the country. Yet the ones we buy in our stores were picked very green, trucked somewhere else to be sorted and packed and gassed to start them turning red, then returned to our stores with about as much taste as cotton balls.

The problem with peanut butter is its consistency. I remember reading about that before, it's on the TSA website very clearly. The density or consistency of peanut butter is something you aren't supposed to be carrying, it's like any gel or cream product. They've been saying that for months and months, and there are signs posted in the airport, etc., everyone flying ought to know by now you aren't supposed to be carrying gels and creams over 3 oz on-board. This is why there are delays, people constantly ignoring the stated rules.

Was the peanut butter in the hand luggage? Reminds me of the mustard issue!!

Actually, for years, whenever I visited my parents in Florida, I would pick all of their ripe kumquats (which they never ate) and bring them back to my office in Paris, where most of my colleagues loved them in terms of being an exotic treat.

Kumquats are available at my local Chinese supermarket, for about 6.50€ a kilo. As I have never bought any, I cannot compare the quality.

Patrick, I have quite buying tomatoes. The last ones I purchased were frozen inside.
If that Italian SIL of mine doesn't grow tomatoes this coming season I am going to ship him back to Italy, lol. I did get some homegrown tomatoes this last season from their neighbors. Ambrosia!

The peanut butter was in the checked luggage which they had to unpack & then repack again (poorly). They wouldn't let me do it.

Mimmel, the point is that it shouldn't have been there. They could do the same thing with a big tube of toothpaste or hair gel. Liquids and gels are to be removed and carried in a plastic bag, and they are limited in size. Please check the requirements rather than hold up everyone in the line behind you.

I'll defend Mimmel - I think we are told to put anything over 3 0z into checked luggage. Checked bottles (and boxes of bottles) of wine are a favorite here on Fodors. Persons traveling more than a week will certainly often put larger bottles or tubes into checked baggagee. It's not forbidden. And above, before the trip, many folks were suggesting peanut butter as a good gift, while no one mentioned anything about its density setting off xrays. Turns out that happens, so lesson learned.

Randomly chosen checked baggage will be opened whether there's anything the xray sees or not, and, Mimmel, sorry to say that in all cases they will re-pack without much concern for how it all gets back in the bag!

As for holding up the line .. well, the morning of my recent flight I tossed a bottle of water in my carry on as I left the house. Planned to drink it at the airport before going through security with my breakfast - but I forgot about it. Did they have to open my bag? Yes. Did it hold up the line? Hardly. I said, shoot, forgot about that. The bottle was thrown in the trash and I went on my way.

People will make wee errors now and then - let's reserve punishment for the willfully recalcitrant.

Meanwhile, the days when I put a pair of bronze candlesticks into my coat pockets so I could board with one fewer carry on bags ... long gone!