The gooseberry conundrum

This came from a slide I used to illustrate the gooseberry conundrum when talking about Sancerre and the like. Wines made from Sauvignon Blanc are said to have a gooseberry nose, but most people in Hong Kong encounter the Cape Gooseberry (or Physalis) and take that to be the fruit in question. But it is the fruit on the left (Ribes uva-crispa) that is the one being referred to. It is however not often seen here in Hong Kong, even in international supermarkets, so the confusion is understandable. The gooseberry fruit itself is sweet-sour in flavour and mildly stringent. Commonly cooked and served in desserts such as gooseberry crumble (hot) and gooseberry fool (cold), this peculiarly English fruit is not well-known here in Hong Kong.

I have also included the pictures of two varieties of Kiwifruit in the slide, and for a good reason. Before some marketing executive coined up that name to sell a New Zealand consignment, the fruit was known as Chinese Gooseberries - Chinese because it originated from southern China. Why gooseberry? Maybe the original fruit was a little small and hairy like the gooseberry. I recently saw a variety of small fruits called Kiwiberries. They were little larger than Western gooseberries. Perhaps that's how Chinese Gooseberries got their name.