October 21st
2007
For me, one of these days greatest food moments is to discover a fruit or vegetable I had no idea existed. I wasn't lucky enough to spot some Pink Pearls, but on our recent trip to San Francisco, the below fruits were sold in front of the Ferry Building. They do have a cute name... you know what I'm talking about?
EDIT: Ahem, I think I belong to the minority of the people who haven't come across Jujubes before, a lot of you obviously have! Anyone out there who has seen this "tastes-like-an-apple-date" in Germany?
Jujubes! I have a basket in my kitchen right now... they're like dried apples crossed with a date!
rosehip?
Are they jujubes?
Whatever they are, they look cute! Did you try them? Sweet? Sour?
Jujube?
looks like those red Chinese dates
I know, I know! Those are jujubes! They are really yummy, but I have no idea how to cook them. I just eat a few if I find them somewhere.
jujubes. yum.
They're fresh dates :) I've been enjoying reading your blog.
Is this a special sort of date? Fresh from the tree?
Jujube...or ber(pronounced bear) as we call it in India. We get the sweetest ones in India...in fact my family owns a couple of orchards and the ber there are the best!
Jujubes. :)
are they some kind of date?
Aren't they jujubes?
jujubes?
Jujubes?
I would say this is the fruit of the jujube tree. but I don't remember the taste. We had such a tree in our garden in south of France, but it's a long time ago...
Reminds me of dates, but with this bright green color? Is it available in Germany?
Are those cobnuts (without their husks)? They sell them in their husks here in the UK at the supermarket, and they're nice roasted and salted.
giuggiole!
Hi. I live in Munich and have purchased jujubes here before - I'm pretty sure at the Viktualienmarkt. But not yet this year...must go look....
I'm with you, I haven't seen these before (I live in Dortmund), but would love to try one!
Tiny, bite-sized apples?
these are so common in chinese cooking. my mom used them all the time when i was growing up. its found in "ba bao" tea (meaning "eight treasures tea") too.
most of the time i have seen it in soups and stews.
the first ime i ever tasted a fresh one was from a tree in a beautiful Beijing hutong (traditional style home composed of a courtyard surrounded by single story tiled buildings) behind the Forbidden City. The owner of the hutong (and therefore owner of the tree) saw us foreigners standing around trying to figure out what the heck the fruit was and she took some down and let us try it. it wasn't very soft or sweet but had a gentle flavor to it.
it's a great food memory from my time in China. unfortunately its a part of beijing that doesn't really exist anymore (most hutongs have been demolished for the sake of modernization), but lives on in my memory.
In Slovenia we call them zizole- pronounced as giuggiole in Italian.
Jujubes... and we eat a lot of them at this time of year here in Albania!
mmmm, love those!! We have it in our garden in Split (Croatia), and the sort we have is a Chinese one and they grow much bigger :))
Huh. I live in the U.S. and I've never come across a jujube before, although I've had the candy that shares its name. I didn't even know it was a fruit!
jujubees are great candied or dipped in carmel like apples. I christopher columbused them at the hollywood farmers market in California. Before jujubees were movies candies to me.
Surprisingly, the only Jujubes I've heard of are the chewy candy. And I doubt they taste anything like their namesake!
Never seen nor heard about jujubees. Guess they don't grow in the far north ....
aha! so that's what I saw at the Mt. View (CA) farmers' market on Sunday. Wish I'd bought some.
I just wanted to show you what our jujubes, or as we call them ''Zizule'' looked like when we picked them this year ;)
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/team1987/DSCN6098.jpg
I have seen them (and they look like little jewels, don't they) but have never cooked them. Clearly, we'll need a nice bunch of recipes, next!
Cheers!
We stumbled onto a Rambutan at Whole Foods. The preschooler loved them. Probably the most unusual fruit I have ever seen (yet).
I love the name (in French little name for Jesus) but I have never seen them in Munich before. I am going to look for them!
Jujubes? Nie gehoert... Ich haett sie auch fuer halbreife Eicheln halten koennen...
Mit einiger Verspaetung ist nun endlich das Rezept fuer den Kaesekuchen da. Wuerd mich mal interessieren, ob Du ihn aehnlich oder ganz anders machst!
http://sweet-sins.blogspot.com/2007/10/cheese-cake-
german-style-and-more-bread.html
oooh! i love these dates! they're from china right? we have them here in singapore and i like eating them as they are for snacks. they really do taste like apples, crunchy and mild sweetness, though i feel they're much nicer! =) it helps that they're cute!
now i know they're called jujubes =p
Chinesische Dattel? Also ich hatte den Namen und auch die Früchte noch nie gesehen oder gehört... Selbst mein Wörterbuch kannte jujube nicht. Wie verarbeitet man sie denn? Den Kommentaren nach zu urteilen kann man sie wohl backen/kochen und auch roh essen...
In Japan these are called natsume. There they are usually stewed in water until soft (maybe with some sugar added, I'm not sure). They develop a wonderful flavor that tastes exactly like caramel. There's a little stone/pit inside, like an olive or date.
They are often called Chinese dates or red dates, but I don't think they are in the date family at all. Dates grow on palm trees (right?), while these jujubes grow on a bush.
yar, this is Red Date, Chinese use the dried date to make sweet tea or put some in soup, say this date good for building blood, especially for woman, the fresh date is crunchy and sweet kind of like apple, I love them.
I love your blog. A big fan.
I've always said the name because I thought it sounded so cute but I've never actually seen one! I always thought they looked more like a pomegranate.
How about prickly pears, have you ever tried those? Much harder to pick than jujubes but also interesting.
Eva, Merci für den Link! Melde mich bei Dir, wenn ich das Rezept meiner Oma ausgegraben hab und werde berichten :)
Ulrike, Ich hab nur rohe Früchte probiert und diese haben mich spontan an Äpfel erinnert, sowohl von der Textur als auch vom Geschmack her.
I bought some at the Farmers Market today, thanks to your picture! They taste different from what I would have expected, but I love them!
Jujubee? That is a cute name. We use it quite a bit in Chinese cooking but in dried form and we just call it red dates. But I like the name-jujubee better.
In Italian they are called 'giuggiole' and 'andare in brodo di giuggiole' (jujubee's broth) is an expression that indicates a very happy state. to make the broth, you can use giuggiole (when they start wrinking), water, peeled apples, white grapes, and some times wine and sugar. cook it down to a syrupy consistency and let it cool before serving.
jujubes. yum.
I love those! They are grown in warmer climate areas in my country (in the coastal region) and the name in my language obviously derives from their Italian name.
In Thailand these are called prutsa you should eat them fresh and crunchy. However, if you do wait a while until they are a bit brown and mushy sometimes they have a hint of bleu cheese flavor.
jujubee