persimmons

this morning, next to the vats of yogurt, there was a small white bowl of deep orange puree: this was an unmistakable sign that the persimmon puree had returned. made from hachiya persimmons, the puree was almost completely free of tannins and had a soft, mellow flavour that goes well with unsweetened yogurt. no one else seems to like it, since there's usually lots of the puree still sitting on the counter after the breakfast service is over. i'm told that fuyu persimmons are eaten as hand fruit here but hachiyas are not, since they become almost liquid by the time they've ripened to the point where their tannins subside enough for edibility. back home, we ate overripe hachiyas cold from the refrigerator on hot days and it was always a particular pleasure to extract the gelatinous lozenge from each squashy quarter slice.*

at lunch, the slice crew served forth trays of salmon roasted with a tamari, molasses, and pomegranate glaze and served with a salsa of halved, stewed, spicy kumquats. the salmon was crusty outside and rare inside, quite a tour de force. the wild rice and kabocha cakes with roasted oyster mushrooms that came with were less exciting, but you can't have everything. and, of course, tonight the enormous slab of seared ahi came out again. words are inadequate to describe the pleasure.

* -- some fruit, like good meat, is better after having gone through a process of controlled decay. what dry aging is for beef, bletting is for hachiyas and medlars.