Monday, October 20, 2008

kaki season!

Autumn - bring it on! I love the colors, the smells, the flavors, and my birthday's in October so you know it's all good.

It's also the season for kaki (persimmon), one of my favorite fruits. I didn't know this until I moved to Japan (back in 2001) because I'd never actually seen one before (and therefore had obviously never tasted one, either). When we used to live in Aichi prefecture, it seemed like everyone there either had a kaki tree in their yard or was related to someone who had one, so we almost never had to buy them then. Here in Hyogo it's so urbanized that hardly anybody has their own garden, so to the co-op I must go.
I found these at our local co-op today, hangin' around, lookin' shifty, so I decided to buy 'em and bring 'em on home.

I'll be doing lots of munching on these orange beauties, and I just might have to buy some more to make kaki cake! So stayed tuned to mamatouille for the latest kaki-madness report, coming to you (semi-) live from Nishinomiya!

4 comments:

Ivy said...

I never heard of persimmom or kaki before but in the picture I recognized what we call lotus fruit. This is the fruit mentioned in the Odyssey: it was so delicious that those who ate it forgot about returning home and wanted to stay and eat lotus with the lotus-eaters. I am looking forward to your cake.

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) said...

That's the first time I've heard of them referred to as lotus root, but I can see why Homer wrote about them in such glowing terms! I remember that part of the Odyssey, but I didn't know what lotus was when I was reading it.

Abigail (aka Mamatouille) said...

Oops, I meant "lotus fruit" not "lotus root." Lotus root is a white crunchy veggie-type food with holes in it here in Japan.

Rachael Hutchings said...

I LOVE kaki! I'm going through withdrawals right now thinking about it being kaki season where you are because you rarely see them here. I won't how a kaki tree would do in SoCal?