My avocados are getting lost in translation

[Jingthing]

This is a very specific request for some expert help from a fluent Thai speaker.

 

I'm really big on avocados. Thai people traditionally aren't. Even though they are grown in Thailand you won't find them in Thai foods except perhaps some places making smoothies with them (as is very popular in the Philippines).

 

Anyway, avocados are a notoriously tricky fruit to buy in any country.

You can buy them firm and hope they ripen well but often they go from firm to rotten so then money wasted.

You can buy them "same day" which is fine if you're at the store and want to use them same day or possibly next.

What you would never do on purpose is to buy them mushy or over-ripe as those are basically garbage.

It's shocking sometimes to see Thai grocery stores leaving out entire trays of rotten cados. 

 

So I do my avocado shopping online.

 

For years I had the same picker who learned to bring me what I wanted.

Firm (unripe) avocados so I could take my chances. Once in a blue moon he would bring me rotten ones but that was so rare I didn't even bother to complain. Occasionally there were some same day ones which was actually OK for me.

 

Well my "trained" guy has moved on and I'm finding that my instructions which I've been putting in English are not working with the new crew. They just never fill my order at all so I'm pretty sure they don't understand and don't want to risk it.

 

I've been putting:

Firm (unripe) avocados

 

Of course Thai speakers would need to translate that I'm guessing it doesn't translate so well.

 

So what I'm looking for here is some THAI TEXT that Thai speakers who aren't avocado experts would understand well enough to fill my orders and also get the results that I want (no mushy, over-ripe, rotten fruits).

 

 

 

[Bredbury Blue]

The wife says:

 

อะโวคาโด ไม่เอาเละ เอาเเข็งๆ

 

Literal translation = avocados, not want soft, want hard

 

 

เละ - means soft, used for fruit vegetables

 

Google translates the wife's translation as

Avocado, no, not hard ones.

[fredwiggy]

6 minutes ago, Bredbury Blue said:

The wife says:

 

อะโวคาโด ไม่เอาเละ เอาเเข็งๆ

 

Literal translation = avocados, not want soft, want hard

 

 

เละ - means soft, used for fruit vegetables

 

Google translates the wife's translation as

Avocado, no, not hard ones.

Was she talking about the avocados or her husband?

[msbkk]

อะโวคาโดดิบ ไม่นิ่ม   unripe avocadoes, not soft
สำหรับทานภายหลัง   to eat later

 

You might try that out.

[Lacessit]

I just ask the seller how many days until they are ready to eat ( Gi wan prom mai )

 

If I have too many ripening at the same time, I refrigerate the excess.

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I just ask the seller how many days until they are ready to eat ( Gi wan prom mai )

 

If I have too many ripening at the same time, I refrigerate the excess.

Well this is about what to put on an online form as special instructions when I order avocados.

 

In person, I don't see asking sellers to know how many days till ripe.

If they won't let me touch them, I'm not buying them anyway.

So if you touch them you know if they're ripe or near ripe or too ripe / rotten.

If they're firm nobody can predict ripening time because often they never ripen well at all. 

I find if they take many days, usually they ripen directly to rotten.

A lot probably has to do with how they are stored in Thailand which likely isn't always optimal. 

[Jingthing]

Thanks so much for the Thai suggestions!

I think my request being in Thai does increase the odds that they'll make more of an effort to actually fill the orders.

Nothing is 100 percent with avocado buying, but increasing the odds of not throwing away money or not getting anything because of not understanding should really be helpful. 

[Lacessit]

35 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Well this is about what to put on an online form as special instructions when I order avocados.

 

In person, I don't see asking sellers to know how many days till ripe.

If they won't let me touch them, I'm not buying them anyway.

So if you touch them you know if they're ripe or near ripe or too ripe / rotten.

If they're firm nobody can predict ripening time because often they never ripen well at all. 

I find if they take many days, usually they ripen directly to rotten.

A lot probably has to do with how they are stored in Thailand which likely isn't always optimal. 

It puzzles me why anyone would order avocadoes online, except to circumvent seasonality. So many day markets.

 

Be that as it may, IME the sellers I buy from are usually quite accurate in predicting maturity.

 

My problem with ordering food online is more the reliability of the delivery companies.

 

 

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

It puzzles me why anyone would order avocadoes online, except to circumvent seasonality. So many day markets.

 

Be that as it may, IME the sellers I buy from are usually quite accurate in predicting maturity.

 

My problem with ordering food online is more the reliability of the delivery companies.

 

 

It's not hard to understand.

I can buy Thai (non Haas) ones close to me so usually I buy those there so I can feel them myself.

But I really want Haas ones.

I don't have a good source for Haas ones near me so making a special trip just to buy them is inefficient. They're not the kind of thing you can stock up on either.

Not rocket science.