I decided to pick up a few at the grocery store on Sunday to enjoy during the week. Well, I cut one up this morning, but when I ate it, my mouth freaked out! Everything felt really dry and my tongue swelled. I have never had any kind of allergy to anything but I assumed that's what it was. It just didn't make sense because I've never had that reaction to the fruit before!
Luckily, some internet research revealed that fruit allergy it was not! The persimmon was actually just unripe. Unripe persimmons contain something called tannin. It's some kind of astringent. Here is a helpful picture from Wikipedia that shows the differences in ripe and unripe persimmons:
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| the front ones, which are darker and with lines, are ripe and OK to eat |
Anyway, my mouth's reaction to the unripe persimmon was a nice lesson in biochemistry. I hope you have learned from my lesson and can avoid any similar experiences!
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Persimmons are soooo good. Thanks for the tip, I've never encountered one that hasn't been ripe yet, so I'll make sure to be on the lookout.
ReplyDeleteMy mouth is watering for one of those right now, they are like candy!
And mangoes too, just eat them when ripe, please!
ReplyDeleteReading your blog a bit more, I thought "I know how it feels being in another country". I also had a blog mentioning the differences that I spotted, or that somehow I found strange or stupid. But after some time, like an old professor of mine pointed out, I got to accept that there is no "wrong or right" (sharia apart, of course), but "different". Surely it was a bit of a difficult process at times, but enriching - like I'm sure it is for you!
Have a great weekend!
There was a tree in my uncle's backyard when I was a kid, that is assuming it's caqui. Maybe it's still there, dunno. I'm not sure if I have tasted it, but I don't like it. hahaha I remember walking over lots of them on ground under the tree.
ReplyDeleteI've had that reaction, too! There is a variety that always does that.
ReplyDeleteThe kind that doesn't I call Korean Persimmons, b/c I found one for the 1st time at a Korean groc store in LA!
Hmmm, love persimmons, they're not around here anymore, don't think it's the season any longer. The ones we get around here are the Hachiya and Fuyu varieties. That is scary what happened, thank God it was not some allergic reaction!
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