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- Title:
- Queen of Fruits
- Date Created:
- 2021-02-13
- Description:
- QUEEN OF FRUITS. In 1665, the year Filipinas began its 101st year as a colony, Domingo Fernandez Navarrete O.P. was arrested in China for his missionary work and deported. Intending to return to Filipinas where he had taught theology at UST and served in Bataan and Mindoro, he instead found himself in Spain and a new assignment in the New World, Sto. Domingo. In 1676 his book “Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China” was published. (Tratados means “treatises”.) In it he recounts discovering in the mountains of Bataan the “famous fruit considered as a delicacy in China, which is called lechias by the Spaniards and li chi by the Chinese”. He called it (Euphoria litchi) one of the best fruits in the world. The fresh ones he brought to Manila “were the first fresh ones that have been in that city; for those taken thither from China are dried and do not at all resemble the fresh ones.” He ventured that Chinese consider it the queen of fruits. “They are small, being slightly larger than a large nut, and the shell is green and thin. The inside is as white as snow, and it has a kernel in the middle as black as jet. Its savor, taste and odour make one praise the Creator”. The fruit of Chinese origin was growing wild in Bataan where natives called it alipai. Drying lychee extended its edibility and use in cooking. There are many botanicals from the main Asian continent in RP food.
- Subjects:
- Domingo Fernandez Navarrete O.P. Litchi Bataan (Philippines)
- Exhibition:
- 100 Minus 8
- Source:
- Lichi chinensis. 1656. Bibliotheque Universtaire Moretus Plantin. Growables.org
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Queen of Fruits", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll184.html