Madonna is reportedly a fan but perhaps even she might balk at forking out £16 (US$28.8) for a small pickled Japanese plum, or kishu-umeboshi, a kind of plum that can be harvested only once every 60 years.
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Tokyo’s top purveyor of these exceedingly tart but powerfully healthy, tiny, pink pickled plums – Kishugodai Ume Shop in Ginza – Is being overrun with orders for kishu-umeboshi, which it sells for ¥105,000 (US$954.1) a batch in a porcelain jar fitted into a finely crafted paulownia box.
The special plums from the Kyoto region are prized for their thin skins, small stones and soft, thick fruit.
