K & K Tropical Fruit
298A Spadina Avenue
416-979-3435

When daylight hours get shorter and the temperature stays below zero, I find myself longing for the warmth of the summer sun that graced us only a mere season ago. Our city might continue its trudge through the dirty snow, but a quick trip to K & K Tropical Fruit can add a splash of colour to cure those winter blahs. Situated just on the northwest corner of the chaotic Dundas and Spadina intersection, this jewel is a much loved haunt of locals and non-locals alike. In fact, no advertisement is needed as their high quality fruits speak for themselves.

The first noticeable thing about K&K is the welcoming sight of its neatly arranged produce. A quick glance at the bountiful tables reveals its second charm: the variety of fruits available! Beside the market staples of apples, oranges and bananas are the many items with origins from South-East Asia or South America. K&K imports exotic fare year-round from Thailand and Vietnam, including piles of those thorn-covered and notoriously pungent durians, plastic mesh wrapped pomelos (the giant cousin of grapefruits), and the bulb-like dragon fruit. These strange looking treats take shelter inside the store during the cold winter months next to shelves overflowing with exquisite cases of mangosteens (aka the king of fruits), bundled up branches of lychees, trays of hairy rambutans, jackfruit and guava. Sometimes featured specials will highlight the orb-like persimmon, a tower of jumbo Fuji apples, luscious and firm white peaches or an excellent selection of ready-to-eat sugar-centric papayas.

Another endearing quality of K&K is the cheery staff. Always happy to assist in the purchase of mass quantities of fruit, the vendors direct their customers’ attention to the finds of the day. Customers who look like their native tongue might be Cantonese will be greeted as a “pretty girl” or “handsome boy,” otherwise “my friend” suffices as they efficiently bag up purchases. Bulk purchasing always guarantees the best prices, but if there resides some doubt about the ability to consume 12 Heong Li pears in one week along with 1 lb of oranges, a sack of grapes, and a half-dozen apples, persuasive declarations would follow of their honey-like sweetness, crisp textures and guaranteed result in a beautiful complexion. Even after that bounty, if there is remote interest expressed toward the rows of jumbo papayas, there is no doubt that a sample will be sliced off to lure those already heavily burdened with bags into making yet another purchase.

Indeed, there are a number of fine fruit vendors in the vicinity of K & K, all singing their siren songs to fruit-hungry patrons. However, I have found that there is only one player in the fresh fruit market that consistently delivers the freshest, most blemish-free, high quality, and lets face it, best produce around. What also sets this vendor apart from its brethren are K & K’s prices, which are slightly more than the average seller in the area. These price tags are still competitive when compared to a local grocery chain, but seem to be an anomalous quality in this mecca for bargain hunters. There are certainly many vendors who are able to offer a sack of ten oranges for $1, a basket of semi-bruised apples for half that, or may even come close to paying the customer to take their punnets of overripe, on the verge of fuzz, berries, but at the end of the day, I seek items that won’t disintegrate before reaching my fridge or kitchen counter.

Finally, the real test will be when those winter blues strike in the comforts of one’s home. At that point, there’s nothing that a little fruit therapy can’t cure. I think I hear my papaya calling me.

Renée Suen is a graduate student at the University of Toronto, specializing in cardiovascular sciences. She has an insatiable appetite and can often be found searching for the tastiest foods and ingredients in the city with her camera. Sometimes she recreates those experiences at home; many of these images can be found at her Flickr site.