Korean Pear: How SWEET it is!!!!

Got to try these delicious fruit just yesterday... am blown away by it... NO WONDER they cost soooo much.... now I would not have bought them myself as I think they are just on the expensive side -- but LUCKILY, one of the roomies got a box as a present for Chinese Moon Festival, instead of the traditional MOON CAKES -- and we all got to TASTE them....
Korean Pears has got to be the sweetest type of Pear I have ever had so far in this lifetime... i just could not believe how sweet it is -- crunchy, juicy and sweet.

Extreme care is supposedly taken while growing these pears, the outcome is the cleanest, most blemish-free fruit available. And unlike the ones I used to have in San Francisco, and even here in Taiwan, Korea's Asian Pears are round and much larger in size. The skin of the pear has a light brownish-yellow tint while the inner flesh is white, as white as they come. This variety is bred to have an extremely thin skin. This is one of the reasons, i read, why they must be wrapped when growing. So, when you bite into it, you right away taste the sweet juicy juicy flesh and not bitter skin like other pears do. They are so refreshingly good and sweet in taste.

According to WIKIPEDIA: "In Korea, , Korean Pears are grown and consumed in great quantity. Many are exported to the U.S. and sold as gifts, touting the superior quality of pears grown on the peninsula versus those grown in Southern California. Imported pears tend to be quite large and very fragrant, and are carefully wrapped, allowing them to last several weeks or more in a cold, dry place, such as a storage.[citation needed] In the South Korean city of Naju, there is a museum called The Naju Pear Museum and Pear Orchard for Tourists (나주배박물관 및 배밭 관광체험).[1]

Because of their relatively high price and the large size of the fruit of cultivars, the pears tend to be served to guests or given as gifts, or eaten together in a family context.

In cooking, ground pears are used in vinegar or soy sauce-based sauces as a sweetener, instead of sugar. They are also used when marinating meat, especially beef."