In the space of a week the temperatures dropped and stonefruit all but disappeared from the fruit sellers display. Autumn had hit and the empty shelf space was suddenly filled up with 감 (gam, persimmons). For weeks I admired these orangey orbs so shiny and transparent they seem to be lit from the inside, just as I’d covet a beautiful flower or an expensive watch, without even the slightest temptation to buy. I’m still learning how to love this fruit, so intensely popular in Korea.
Trees in my neighbourhood are heavy with slowly ripening persimmons. With every passing day they’re a little more orange, until harvest day finally arrives. A great joy in Korea is seeing fruit and vegetables grown on any available patch of land carefully cared for and then picked and eaten with nothing going to waste. Since my first persimmon sighting, they seem to be multiplying exponentially, edging out every other fruit on display. They take up more and more shelf space until it’s only persimmons and mandarins in the shops, until next spring. I finally caved in and bought some of these soft and squidgy lights, whose honey sweetness and mild fragrance were a pleasant surprise.
In Korea there are many varieties of persimmons and all I’ve encountered have been non-astringent. The persimmon landscape, although beautiful, is more than enough to confuse the casual observer. 단감 (dan gam, persimmon) are the hard yellow-orange type, 연시 (yeon shi) are orange, ripe and soft, the kind pictured, and tasted, here. 홍시 (hong shi), I understand to be fruit that is ripened on the tree. Hong (홍) comes from the Chinese word for red (红), and this fruit is ruby red and often more expensive. They are also dried 곶감 (got gam) and frozen for year round consumption, such is their popularity.
Frozen persimmon, ready to eat.
Preparation is simple. Just remove the calyx (green part), carefully peel the thin skin off and eat. Or, to complicate matter a little, remove the calyx and freeze for a few hours. When hard enough, rinse quickly under hot water and pull the thin outer skin off. Set aside for a few minutes until soft enough to eat with a teaspoon. The simplest, sweetest ‘sorbet’ you’ll ever eat, and the taste that flicked the switch on my persimmon indifference.
With every bite persimmons are gaining their sweet hold over me, but that won’t stop me from anxiously awaiting strawberry season, next summers nectarines and my first taste of mango in forever, whenever that may be. Until then, my healthy dessert of choice will be frozen, sweet 연시.
