Muscadines & Scuppernongs

(Reposting because the image links seemed broken)

Before a couple weeks ago, I had no clue what a muscadine (purple) or scuppernong (green) was and I’m still not sure what the correct pronunciations is for both words.  However, thanks to the always exciting Marketplace On Oakton, one thing I do know is that they’re both super awesome.  If you’ve ever had Kasugai Muscat Gummies, muscadine and scuppernong flesh tastes exactly like that.

Extremely sweet with an intense grape flavor, the sphere of flesh can be easily harvested from the thick and contrastingly tart skin.  Because the skin is so tart, I usually can only eat 75% of a serving with the skin on, saving the final 25% for flesh-only bites.

Since I never enjoy wasting things, I thought about making muscadine gummies and adding a touch of honey to nudge the overall flavor towards the sweet side rather than tart side.  I heated, blended, and reduced down a pot of muscadines, scuppernongs, honey, water, and agar.  After a few taste tests and further reducing until the mixture tasted like a grape explosion, I waited for the mixture to set.  However, that plan didn’t work out so well.

Although I used a 1% agar solution just as I did with the tempura headcheese, the mixture never solidified.  I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if something in the muscadines and scuppernongs somehow inhibited the agar from working its magic.  What’s one to do when life gives you a goopy grape mixture?  Freeze them into mini popsicles of course.

Fresh Dates

One of the things I love about Marketplace On Oakton, my main source for groceries, is the variety of produce they have.  Every time I go shopping, I’m bound to discover something I’ve never heard of or eaten before.  A couple months ago, I came across some fresh dates and thought I’d give them a try.  I’m not sure what kind of dates these were, but I generally find dried Medjool dates pleasant enough.  However, I don’t buy dried dates very often because they can easily be overwhelmingly sweet.

Something with dried dates in them that I would buy often, though, are the stuffed dates at Avec.  It consists of “chorizo-stuffed Medjool dates with smoked bacon and piquillo pepper tomato sauce.”  The balance between sweet, savory, acidic, smoky, and spicy makes it one of the best things to eat in Chicago.

Not knowing what to do with a fresh date, I sliced a small piece off and popped it into my mouth.  Almost immediately, I had to spit it out.  The skin of the date was incredibly astringent and bitter and left my tongue feeling like I had just licked a pool of acid.   After being punished for my ignorance, I peeled the date and took a bite.

The texture was slightly crunch and the taste was that of a date without the intense sweetness that is so characteristic of a dried one.  It was sweet, but definitely more mellow than a dried date and didn’t leave me thirsting for a glass of milk to quench the sweetness.  As such, I felt like it actually let the natural date flavor shine on its own.  I would definitely buy these fresh dates again when they’re in season and would say that I prefer fresh dates over dried ones.

As a fun experiment, I set a couple dates aside and let them age a bit.  Unsurprisingly, their sweetness became more concentrated as time went on.  The flesh darkened to a more familiar brownish hue and the texture became softer, losing most of its crunchiness.

Not only did Marketplace on Oakton have fresh dates, but they had 2 kinds of fresh dates.  These dates did not come attached to a branch and were labeled as “Chinese dates.”  According to Wikipedia, these are also known as jujubes and are not to be confused with the candy of the same name.

I wasn’t sure how to tell the ripeness of Chinese dates, so I picked some that were entirely brown and others that had patches of brown.  The flesh tasted pretty much like an apple.  Nothing too mind blowing, but I’m glad I at least tried them.  After learning my lesson with the other fresh dates, I didn’t risk tasting the skin.  Aside from that debacle, I’d say I had a pretty successful adventure with fresh dates.

Ugly Fruit

One of the many reasons why I love Marketplace On Oakton is its varied selection of extremely fresh produce.  It’s so nice being able to get things like gai lon, pea shoots, snow pea leaves, jicama, yuca, taro root, lemongrass, and other such “ethnic” produce without having to drive very far and without having to pay extreme Whole Foods prices.  Lemongrass at Marketplace On Oakton = $1.49/lb.  Lemongrass at Whole Foods = $4.99.  I really hate Whole Foods.

I’ll admit that Marketplace On Oakton pales in comparison to something like a 99 Ranch that I grew up on in California, and H Mart down the road another 10 minutes has a wider array of Asian produce.  However, 75% of the time Marketplace On Oakton will have what I need, and since it caters to Asians, Hispanics, Eastern Europeans, and Desis, it gives me a chance to try things I’ve never tried before.

One such thing I’d never tried before was ugli fruit.  When I saw the sign reading “UGLY FRUIT” I knew I had to try one.  I’m much too immature to ignore a sign like that.  To my dismay and delight, the fruit was misspelled on the sign.  I was bummed that something called “ugly fruit” didn’t exist, but “ugli fruit” was close enough and I love seeing typos in public.

 

Pretty much everything aside from the taste of the ugli reminded me of a grapefruit; the size, the rind, and the fibrous walls were very similar to that of a grapefruit’s.  I don’t think I ate it at peak ripeness, as there were still green blemishes on the rind and the flavor was pretty muted, but it sort of did taste like a cross between a grapefruit, an orange, and a tangerine as Wikipedia describes it.  I’m glad I was able to try a new fruit, but the ugli fruit’s identity crisis didn’t appeal to me.