Pomegranate

When I was a kid, there was a pomegranate tree in the playground of kindergarten and produced fruits. I was told it's eatable and put gingerly a bit of read fruit in the mouth. The first wild fruit I ate in my life.

A pomegranate is called 'Zakuro' in Japanese. The sound was strange enough to me in childhood. I heard the Japanese name came from Zagros mountains of Iran where was major producing area of the fruits.  Must be true. When I was invited the local family in Iran, I was served tea and pomegranates. The fruits were placed on the plate with knife. 'Should I use the knife and serve myself, it means?' I was hesitated for a while. So a master of the family cut it and passed me out. The living room had a sky light, must be a traditional architecture, and was roomy. Persian rug was spread over the floor and all the families came together on it. I ate the pomegranate clumsily in the curious eyes of all families.

Here is another story on a pomegranate. In Kashgar, Xinjiang China, I saw a strange machine. It's set in front of a vendor boy of bazaar. It looked like a ice shaver. Made by chrome steel and there was an decoration of iron thorns, like a costume of heavy metal band, on the top part. I was caught my eyes on the art-deco and come up to the vendor boy.
I asked him what the machine's for. He pointed the iron throne on the top. I saw pomegranate fruit were pierced on some of the thrones that I thought just decoration. Then the boy gestured pulling down long iron handle on the machine and put a plastic cup on the bottom. 'Ah, it must be a pomegranate juicer'

'Should try it' For my order, he took a fruit from the iron throne and set it at the machine. With a big swing of handle, the fruit was squeezed and red juice was dripped into the white cup. Seemed not so much juice was made from one fruit. The red juice filled up the small cup tasted sour sweet as my first Zakuro in my childhood.

I really loved the design of the pomegranate juicer and looked for at the bazaar, but I could not find. It's funny. Coz if I found the machine, how did I think bring it back to Japan? I've gotta take a train, taxi, bus and airplane to get home with the heavy iron art.
Does the pomegranate juice vendor in Kashgar still use the beautiful machine?