Friday, March 27, 2009

My First Kinkan...Sorta

Kinkan

I got pretty excited about this stuff when I saw them at the market, as I thought that I had found some cool little Japanese oranges the size of ping-pong balls, and was eager to give them a try. But when I tried to peel one of these, I found that they weren't really peelable. OK - so I figured that they had edible rinds then.

I thus bit into the entire thing, but then I realized that it was hardly the juicy little orange I had envisioned. It tasted just like a kumquat. Only after I looked it up online did I realize that these were indeed kumquats...except of course that they were in a perfectly round shape rather than the oblong ones that I was used to seeing.

I was kind of let down then. I wanted some bite-sized juicy and tangy oranges, but these were nothing but kumquats filled with at least four or five annoying seeds each. Well, there is still plenty of Japanese fruit at the market to go try. I'm so curious about them all.

9 comments:

Kathy said...

Japanese Kyoho type slip-skin grapes?

Or even better -- if you ever have the luck to try those from Korea (not just those Japanese ones from Isetan or Medi-ya), they are truly heavenly.

I used to think that grape flavoured sweets were artificial in taste, till I ate those. Then I realized that the grape flavour were based on grapes like those. Slip them out of the skin by squeezing the base gently. Wow!

They still don't tempt me to drink alcohol though. Haha.

Unknown said...

i hope someone else paid for it? ;)

and next time you are hungry, i recommend checking out http://www.tastespotting.com/.

the idea is so genius! i drool over the site every day....

Ingenue said...

They look like eggs!

Anonymous said...

I like persimon ;-)

Pete said...

You ARE supposed to eat them skin & all.

Anonymous said...

They look like quince, or perssimon, either of which has to be dead ripe, almost rotten, in fact, before it is edible. Talk to any one from the south (US). Eating either of these fruits too early is like eating alum powder. Not very pleasant. Not merely sour, But like eating a styptic (shaving) pencil. They make a nice jam, when ripe, however. If you like citrus marmalde.
Tom

Anonymous said...

I guess, like Persimmon, Quince, Pomengranate, Gosseberry or Ruhbarb, ( ok, not actually a fruit, but great whn mixed with strawberries) it is an acquired taste, and not overtly sweet, for sure. Like key limes, or blood oranges.

Anonymous said...

Dude, the label on the cover says it all. The Chinese looking characters are kanji for kumquat.

Looks great though..

ayl said...

Silly, the label does indeed say "gum gut" in Chinese characters! I would never eat these with the rind...that's like when asian parents made you eat peserved orange rinds when you're sick as a child.