Toronto restaurant charging $25 for one orange
From the popular izakaya that once brought you $30 slices of cantaloupe comes a $25 orange with flesh that's said to "melt away like jelly."
Izakaya Ju in Markham is bringing the rare and exquisite fruit, known as Beni Madonna, to Toronto this month during its limited December growing season.
Owner Ju Anzai says this will be the first time a restaurant in Toronto has offered the luxury food item, which he's having imported straight from Japan's Ehime Prefecture.
"It’s very sweet and juicy," he says. "Very limited!"
Those who don't feel like paying $25 for one orange can get a taste of Beni Madonna by ordering juice from the fruit online... though, again, at $40 Canadian per bottle, it's not exactly cheap.
Part of the reason for this is how decadent and candy-like the fruit, which was only recently developed, can be.
"The holy grail... is to create a fruit that is as much a natural sweet confection as possible, mirroring, for example, the very popular dessert of a citrus filled with jelly made from its own juice," reads a description of the orange on Japanese food tourism website Oishi So Japan.
"Beni Madonna achieves this."
