Zespri - Kiwi Fruit from New Zealand

Recently, I was invited to a Kiwifruit Dinner by Zespri. I gladly accepted the invite because I was curious to know how they will be preparing the dinner, all with the Kiwifruit elements in it.

If you watch Singapore based cooking shows on the Chinese channels, you would have noticed that fruits have been used in many dishes recently. My aunt has also experimented with Kiwi recently and it tasted rather 'refreshing'. She prepared Sotong with Kiwifruit. I don't have the recipe for that, she was just experimenting and we thought it was interesting.

The dinner was at Heart Bistro, a restaurant that serves healthy food along Orchard Road. Zespri Singapore had asked the chef to prepare dinner for a group of us all using Kiwifruit as part of the ingredients.




When we arrived, we were all greeted with a glass of Zesty Zespri!
It's blended Green Kiwi, Green Apple and Honeydew. It has quite an unique taste. Probably because of all the Kiwifruit seeds.


Ms Pooja Vig, the founder of The Nutrition Clinic gave us a talk about how Kiwifruit is regarded as a wonder fruit. She talked about healthy eating and how food can be used for healing as well. I felt a bit embarrassed as I know I eat a lot of food and sometimes the food that I enjoy eating is probably at 9 on the Richter scale for food. I should probably eat healthier fruits if I can daily. Kiwifruit seems to be a fruit can help me!

On the Zespri Singapore website, they claim that:
Kiwifruit has twice the vitamin C of an orange, as much potassium as a banana and only half of the calories.  Kiwifruit is also a good source of magnesium, is sodium free and a low-fat source of vitamin E.




During dinner we were presented with a nutritional talk and slide shows of the goodness of a Kiwifruit. If you see, the Kiwifruit season is ending soon. So if you see them in the supermarket grab them before you need to wait for next year's season!

How many of you eat Kiwifruit skin? Do you know they are nutritious too? I eat some of it at time, for the nutrition it provides, but not all of it, as I find it too 'hairy'.


I am wondering, which Kiwifruit do you all prefer? The Green Kiwifruit or the Gold Kiwifruit?

I like the Gold Kiwifruit but KopiKosongGirl likes the Green Kiwifruit. I like the sweet version and softer texture of the fruit. KopiKosongGirl don't like the Gold ones, but prefer the Green one that has the tangy-sweet taste. I have a feeling most people like the Gold Kiwifruit.

Appetizer

Salad of Kiwi with green mango and crispy fish.
It's a Thai Mango salad with small cubes of Green Kiwifruit in it.

If you are preparing an healthy appetizer for yourself or your family, you can add what I call 'nutrition cubes' into your food. Eg: Kiwifruit and Prawn salad maybe?

For breakfast, 1 Kiwifruit eaten by itself would be the easiest I guess?

Soup

Clear lemongrass scented soup with poached seafood and fresh gold and green kiwi

I particularly liked this soup. It's a tom-yam like soup without the spiciness in it. It's quite interesting to find thin wedges of kiwifruit in the soup. The Green Kiwifruit gave it a little sourish bite while the Gold Kiwifruit gave it a sweet taste.

Mains

Herb and spice roasted spring chicken with Kiwi salsa.

Oh, I am not sure if Heart Bistro has this chicken in their regular menu, if they do, you should come back for it. The Herb and Spice Roasted Spring chicken here is absolutely lovely!

I guess the Kiwi and Tomato Salsa gave it a nice twist too! Another idea is to prepare this salsa and serve it with toasted baguette. I am sure it will be tasty! Or have a sandwich with slices of kiwifruit. That would be a healthy breakfast option too!

Dessert

Kiwi trifle with saffron mousse.

If you are a dessert person, you might grow to love this. The trifle is yummy and you can download the recipe the recipe if you want to make it yourself.

I have uploaded the PDF file of the recipe provided by Zespri here.




In Singapore, we usually see the Gold and Green Kiwifruit on sale.
I only found out that night that there's now the Organic Zespri Kiwi on sale in Singapore. Look out for it if you prefer to eat organic fruits.



During the Q&A, we asked the Zespri Kiwifruit experts some questions.
Here are some that might be interesting to you as well.

Are the kiwifruit ready to eat when we buy them?
The Gold Kiwifruit is picked when it's almost ripening, and when it reaches the stores, they are almost ready to eat. The Green Kiwifruit might take longer to ripen when you buy them. It depends on how long the retailer already had them on their shelves.

Is there a way to hasten the ripening of the fruit?
Yes! Put the kiwifruit in a bag with an apple or banana. The ethylene will hasten the ripening of the kiwifruit. 

What is the best way to store Kiwifruits?
The best way is to store them at room temperature until it ripens. Feel the Kiwifruit with your fingers, they are ripe when they yield gently to your touch. Put them in the fridge to cool only when they have ripen.


Hope this post has been informative to you all.