Persimmons aren't scary!

I was afraid of the persimmon, because people's reactions had been pretty mixed - one friend, Kassiane, absolutely adores them, but a lot of people's reactions had been more wary than anything. But today, I got brave and picked a persimmon off my landpeople's tree. (They don't mind, so I figured, hey, it's free fruit...)

I brought it in and washed it, then consulted the internets. My friends confirmed that it was indeed a persimmon, and cautioned against eating it before squishy. (And then we started talking about pomegranates, which made me want pomegranates.) I looked around, and I found out that persimmons were pretty scary. Apparently, the astringent varieties are so bitter that they will "drawe a mans mouth awrie with much torment" if unripe, which doesn't sound like a fun time to me. Checking around a bit, I reassured myself that this appeared to be a Fuyu persimmon, which is okay at any stage of ripeness. Fortunately, Kassiane was online! I sent her a link to this picture, asking what she thought.

A bright orange, shiny, tomato-shaped fruit sitting in front of my laptop

.

She thought I should eat it immediately.

A Fuyu persimmon cut in half. The flesh is firm and golden orange, and there is an 8-pointed star shape in the middle.

I gave it a shot. The taste was fairly sweet, mild, a little bit odd, and the texture was somewhat apple-y. Kassiane identified the odd flavor as somewhat like cinnamon, and the rest of the internet concurred. I didn't love it - it seemed like the sort of thing I could mix into a salad or another dish, but alone, it wasn't heavenly. (It might not have been fully ripe yet.)

So I did what I do every night, Pinky:  try to take over the world! ...Ahem. I cut it up, mixed it with brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter, and stuck it in the microwave for a minute and a half.

Translucent chunks of orange fruit with some butter and brown sugar in a bowl with a fork.

It was way better cooked. The texture was soft but not mushy in an icky sort of way, and I really liked the way the flavor worked with the brown sugar. Now it is gone.

And that was the end of my very first persimmon.