Diospyros kaki in China, Japan and Korea. In East Asia the main harvest time for "kaki" is in the months of October and November. The trees lose their leaves by harvest time. Occasionally, the brightly colored fruit is left unharvested on the tree as a decorative effect. In China, "kaki" has been cultivated since time immemorial. It is considered to have four virtues: Cultivation of this species at first spread through East Asia. Since the 19th century, "kaki" partially replaced date-plum ("Diospyros lotus", also known as Caucasian persimmon) in some countries in South Europe and West Asia, because "kaki" have bigger fruits
Black pepper pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant). Marco Polo testifies to pepper's popularity in 13th-century China, when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Hangzhou): "... Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs." Marco Polo is not considered a very reliable source regarding China, and these second-hand data may be even more suspect, but if this estimated a day