WHY DO THAIS CALL LIMES -- LEMONS

[mercman24]

trying to get a lemon, in Tesco onnut.girl show me, no, they are LIMES. even friends call them lemons, got me thinking perhaps i am wrong. but today in BIG C rama 4 , boldly marked up LIMES and a yellow oblong thing which i recognised as a LEMON, was 147 baht (imported) ?, didnt wait to find out,so why do i never see Lemons around surely this is the right climate to grow them.so what they get in their drink is a slice of lime NOT lemon. . anyone know where i might get a reasonably priced lemon, i live at phra khanong.

[SoiBiker]

They don't. They call them both manao.

[johnatong]

Yellow lemons are imported and expensive --------------------------

[Gsxrnz]

Yellow lemon can be called manaao farang.

Go figure.

[cooked]

Botanically they are both l,embers of the Citrus family, the word lemon came later. So who are we to say that the Thais are wrong? I'm sure that lemons as we know them were never seen before Farangs started asking for them. We have 10 trees of what appears to be a cross between a lemon and a lime, fruit large like a lemon but still green, maybe we will find out soon why Thais don't cultivate 'lemons'.

[Pib]

They call limes ma-naao and lemons ma-naao farang.

So, to a Thai both lime and lemon have ma-naao in the name with na-naao being the core word. Make perfect sense to a Thai...it is their language...but I can understand why a farang might get confused since lime and lemon are completely different words with no related core association like in Thai.

[billd766]

You can buy lemons at Makro even out here in the sticks and they are not that expensive. You can also buy imported ones at Villa but you may need a credit card with a high limit.

[Suradit69]

Yellow lemon can be called manaao farang.

Go figure.

Probably because it's considered an import.

Guava plantings were imported by the Portuguese 300 years ago and are called "farang."

khanom farang (a sweet), man farang (potato), maak farang (chewing gum) etc, The word farang can imply that the item in question was a Western import into Thailand.

[OccamsRazor]

Yellow lemon can be called manaao farang.

Go figure.

Also manaao leung

[NongMalee]

Seems the OP may have been left with a bitter taste in his mouth after his experience.

[mikebell]

Cost me 8 baht apiece on Bang Saray market. Was this a farang price?

[mercman24]

ha ha, i forgot to mention the limes are green ok, wow and marked up as limes i just never seem to see lemons at my markets. oh well back to honey and lime then.

[tolsti]

Central Festival supermarket Pattaya... Lemons were 29bht each this afternoon.

Edited May 27, 2016 by tolsti

[Sparkles]

This is what Thai farmers need to diverse into a crop that is easy to grow and in demand.I wish I had a few rai I would do it myself,one of the easiest of the citrus varieties to grow.

I sold them fror peanuts in oz as they were so widely grown in back yards

Edited May 28, 2016 by Sparkles

[tutsiwarrior]

yeah, lemons are manao falang...I usually bring a kilo from saudi with me when I come home on leave and use them to squeeze on hoummos as the local limes are not the same...never seen any lemons available in Thailand outside of BKK falang supermarkets...

and limes can be quite expensive certain times of the year and the wife refuses to buy them...I was actually shocked once at the price at lotac...about 18 baht apiece...

and lemons cannot grow in the local climate as they need a spell of cooler weather...we had a lemon tree in our backyard when I was a kid in southern California (as well as 2 valencia orange trees and 2 grapefruit...dad scratchin' his heid: 'what are we gonna do wid all dis fruit?')

Edited May 28, 2016 by tutsiwarrior

[tutsiwarrior]

I was in the main upstairs kitchen today and saw one of my lemons sittin' in the preparation area...looks like the family is comin' around, and they usually distain falang food and the associated ingredients...and in the market I noticed that regular manao were selling at 8 baht each...

('hey, try some of these garbanzos...they make wonderful hummous'...the evil step daughter: 'ptooie! will you get outta here???')