Sunday, March 19, 2006

Persimmon (柿子)

Nowadays I see persimmons (柿子) come in different sizes. The normal size persimmons and the "mini"-sized persimmons. The mini ones look cute, and resemble tomato from afar. I think the taste is similar to the normal-sized persimmons (never buy or tasted the small ones yet). The colour varies from light yellow orange to dark red orange. The prices over here varies with supplies and stocks in the market.

The raw persimmons are hard, crunchy and not so tasty. The ripe ones are very soft and sweet, and... the juice might dribble all over when one takes a bite on it. I like eating the half ripe or partially-ripe persimmons ~ firm, crunchy and semi-sweet . What is your preference?

Dried persimmons is available in the market. Handy (and healthy?) snacks. I have written a post on persimmon farm few months ago during my previous visit to Cameron Highlands. Pictures of the persimmon trees are available in the previous post.

Yeah, persimmon is also known as Sharon Fruit or Kaki (If I'm not mistaken, Kaki = Japanese name for persimmon). I think persimmon is known as "Pisang Kaki" in Malay language. (But.. Pisang = banana and Kaki = leg. Mmmm.... I can't see the resemblance.. Wonder how the name derived..)

25 comments:

Daniel Yiek said...

I like very ripe raw persimmon that oozes with juices. For dried ones, I prefer very soft types. I like them in dessert soup like Ching Tng. Slurp.

Cynthia said...

persimmon season is somewhere around this time, i think. im not sure. wait till i go to class, and i hear those asians say "woi! lets go to the persimmon farm.." ah!.. then u know when.. ekkeke

Selba said...

Persimmon? is this like 'sawo'? gonna make sure of it :)

Chen said...

daniel,
The very ripe persimmon is nice but has to be eaten with care, as u mentioned, it will ooze with juice when u eat it :) Definitely need a thorough hand wash after eating ;)

cynthia,
Hahha, let's wait and see (or should use "listen" instead) to the "announcement" by your fellow coursemates :)

selba,
Is Sawo = Sapodilla or Chiku/Ciku? Cos sawo = chiku/ciku, then it's different fruit.

c a r c a r said...

'柿' is the japanses word i found for persimmon! i think they only have kanji for it, no hiragana or katakana.

?? hehe....they are three different japanese writing system.

i like raw or half-ripe persimmon, the dried one? hmmm...xie xie ni ah.

but i heard some people said heat up the dried persimmon with hot water and drink it, can cure caughing. ? don't know leh..

Chen said...

carcar,
u don't like the dried persimmon? Next time give yours to me. Xie xie in advance ;)

Next time when u cough, u can try the "secret formula" and see whether it works or not? ;) (although I know u don't like the dried persimmon, but I think u don't mind to sacrifice yourself a little bit to check the efficiency of the formula , right?

Sharl612 said...

I love persimmon but not the dried one though. Let me go dig my fridge.. think I still have some. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hmm... too bad, not my favorite type of fruit. Though jackfruit/nangka is :)

c a r c a r said...

choy! next time when i cough? touch wood ya! hahaha....just kid!

yup, will tell u the efficiency of the secret formula once i confirm!

wahahah...

c a r c a r said...

oh ya! forget to tell you! i love your comment box now, u took off the word verification? cool...much more easier yah!

maybe i should do that too? hmmm...this put me into deep thought, mine not much ppl comment, lai lai qu qu also chen and cynthia! wahaha! joking lah joking lah!

appreciate that!

Chen said...

sharl612,
I hope it's not the forgotten "vintage" persimmon inside the fridge ;) On & off, when I clear/clean my fridge, I will find "forgotten" foodstuff inside ;)

jacky,
No problem.. U can always give me your share of persimmon in the future ;)

carcar,
hahha.. URTI is something very common.. (but still.. *touch wood* :P)

THe word verification thing is very "leceh". Selba also takes it off quite some time ago ;)

Robin CHAN said...

Going fruity?

Yes, I like persimmon only when it is slice and put in my cheng teng (with dried longan soup).

To eat it like that, I tot it is a bit too sweet and to blend in taste.

Robin CHAN said...

BTW, great that u also removed word verification!

Welcome to the 'no verification' club

c a r c a r said...

doc,

URTI = cough?

aiyah, i thought selba never turn on her word verification b4, ek ek ek...

ok, i 'll try to off mine too :D

Chen said...

Robin,
going fruity is better than going nuts :)

carcar,
URTI = upper respiratory tract infection. Eg cough, running nose, sorethroat etc..

Welcome to the "No Verification Club" in advance then :D

Vagabonder said...

OMG, I love them too. Although there is one sort of persimmon tastes bitter, it's red and the form is a bit long...

I like them both fresh and dried ;-)

c a r c a r said...

hey you are welcome --> to my no word verification club too!!

go go go! go now! hehehe!

i always suffer URTI, and always having fever due to bad sorethroat! aik :C

Chen said...

thao,
I have not yet try the bitter-tasted persimmon. Wondering how this bitter fruit tasted like :)

carcar,
any red carpet on the floor to welcome me? Now we can start counting who are the members of the "No Verification Club" and try to pull in more members :P

Take more fruits and Vitamin C loh :) Hope that will help u :)

c a r c a r said...

aiyah, put red carpet to welcome you ah? can lah, you want to 're-married'? wahahaha....joking ah, cannot take it serious ah...

and hor, i think i want to get sbanboy to turn off too, later i go and tell him, bye :D

Chen said...

carcar,
aiyoh, this carcar :P
piak u with... coca cola bottle?

we always welcome people with red carpet mah for important events.. especially those VIP or VVIP :D (btw, VIP is not Very Important Pig, okie? )

Hahha, I see u r very enthuthiastic to attract (or pull? ) more members into the "No Verification Club". Keep up the good work, hahaha...

Lrong Lim said...

Yeap, it is 'kaki' (柿) in Japanese... lovely fruit...

Chen said...

lrong,
thanks :)

Anonymous said...

china persimmons are almost seedless but leave a slight astringent after taste. they are usually very soft as well, some like it, some don't

Irasel's sharon persimmons were well known to be one of best.

japanese persimmons were good aswell, quite hard to find in singapore. i suspect it's will be costly as well.

Pandabonium said...

We have a persimmon tree in our yard here in Japan. It puts out a lot of fruit, but this past season a typhoon stripped the tree of almost all the fruit and leaves!

Chen said...

slurp,
I tried the China persimmons during my trip to The Three Gorges or Yangtze River Cruise in 2004. Yeah, the persimmons there are very soft (juicy and sweet as well) and cheap too :D

I don't have the opportunity to taste the Sharon and Japanese persimmon yet.

Pandabonium,
wow.. sorry to hear that. Let's approach it in a different way. At least the tree is still around and didn't get pulled out by the typhoon. Hope the tree will bear fruits again soon :)