In describing fruits and delicacies from the East, you should never resort to comparing their appearance to the coronavirus. Not now especially. Not ever.

A feature on the various fruits in Thailand is perhaps another example of how cultures in Asia are constantly subjected to “other-ness.” The New York Times published “Eating Thai Fruit Demands Serious Effort but Delivers Sublime Rewards” a few days ago and certain parts of it might make you raise an eyebrow.

It starts out as a harmless culture piece until it describes rambutan: “With its crimson skin studded with green feelers, the egg-sized fruit bears more than a passing resemblance to a coronavirus.”

Cringe.

The line “It is yummy” that follows after bears no saving grace.

You’d think we would be spared from these kinds of lines after we just went through the horror of explaining why Trump calling COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” encourages racism.

It doesn’t stop there, however. The article goes on to explore Thailand’s different fruits, laden with unnecessary comments that may make you cringe even more, as these fruits “require serious commitment to eat.”

Let’s rephrase and we’ll just leave it here for you to judge: The article says that it’s difficult to eat certain fruits because you have to peel their skin and be mindful as to not swallow the seeds.

Funny, I’ve never read how it’s hard to eat an apple because you have to wash them well beforehand as there’s no protective layer over the edible surface or that at the end, you might accidentally bite the bitter core.

After this, it lambasts the jackfruit in so many words beginning with: “The most infamous fruit, which stinks of death, is the durian.”