Sweetest Pineapple

This pineapple as an offering to Buddha has been here for almost 4 weeks. I think it's now ready to eat!!!

When I used to work for Sushi bar in the glossary store, there was a table for pineapples to sell just in front of my workplace. As a result, I often saw customers choosing a pineapple and actually I was often asked by customers, “How do you choose a sweet pineapple?” They were mostly tourists.

My answer had been “I’m sorry I don’t know” or sometimes “Who knows?” but because I often received questions, I became so curious about answers and found some possible answers from websites later.

One website says “choose a pineapple that is heavy.” It also says “choose darker green leaf of pineapple.” Then another website says “smell the butt of the pineapple! If it doesn’t smell pineapple juice, it doesn’t contain much sugar.” Another opinion which I thought interesting was “upside down pineapple for a while before you eat.”

I still don’t know whether they are correct or not, but because of a question I had, I stay curious which pineapple would be sweet. Then last summer, I happened to find a way to make pineapple sweeter.

That was so simple...just to wait. I know everybody wait for a ripe pineapple. But did you wait enough time? Is it really ready? How many days do you wait?

Well let me share my experience. Last summer, I bought a pineapple as a offering at our altar during O-Bon service at Koloa Jodo Mission in the end of July. Then right after O-Bon, I went to Japan and completely forgot this Pineapple. After I came back here on August 18, I saw pineapple looked so dry and yellow and realized I forgot to tell my family to eat it. I honestly thought I waisted a pineapple.

However, it smelled so good that I tried it.

"Oh my gosh, so sweet!!!" To my surprise, that was the sweetest pineapple I've ever had.

Before I ate this pineapple, I used to wait only for a few days for the pineapple to ripe. But after this experience, I wait at least a few weeks to eat Pineapple after I bought it......It's so simple but I realized "Waiting " can be the best answer for the sweetest pineapple.