Expat Life: Eating Out.....The Answer to "What's This?"
In yesterday's post, I shared a typical dilemma faced by many expats in Asia: trying to figure out what they're eating.
For those of you who were up all night tossing and turning with the frustration of wondering what the above item I found in my soup was, have no fear: relief is at hand.
The object in question was (drum roll, please): a jujube, or Korean date, not to be confused with the American confectionery of the same name. (For those who are interested, there is also, apparently, an American drag queen and TV personality who goes by a similar name, which provided me with some rather electrifying Google search results) They are common in the cooking of China, Korea, and parts of the Middle East. When mature, they are a brownish color, which naturally turns to a deep red when the fruit is dried.
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| dried jujubes, via |
Results:
None of the reader comments correctly identified the item as a jujube - or even as a date, -although a number of you got into the ball park with dried persimmons, plums, cherries and the like. However, MsCaroline has decided that she absolutely loves this sort of guessing game, simply because she had such a good time reading your comments(both on the blog and on Facebook), some of which she will now share with you:
Most Likely to Become a Tongue Twister: Goes to MrC: "An adolescent ibex testicle?"
Closest Answer (based on research and/or personal experience): Shared between fellow expat bloggers Dkuroiwa and Stacy: "..a small, sweet plum...." and " rehydrated salt prune or plum..(later changed to - in my opinion, quite reasonably)...gingko berry."
Most Reasonable Answer Based on Personal Knowledge of MsCaroline and Son#2: Goes to KarenA: "A cranberry?"
Most Likely To Cause the Reader to Snort Coffee Through The Nose Award: Goes to Holly: "An eyeball? A testicle? A liposarcoma?"
We'll be going out to dinner again soon.....stay tuned.
Comments
Stacy
@ExpatMum: Well, in all fairness, at least in the US (in theory) you could ask (and maybe understand) what it is you're eating! I assume Ghana must be a lot like Seoul - no point in even asking.
can't wait for the next one....and WE KNOW there sill be another one!!!
hahahaha!!!
Talking of looking up things on google and getting startling results reminds me when a local photography firm took some photos of our amateur theatre group. I told my mother to look at them on 'Big Day Photography'. Unfortunately she misheard and thought it was called 'Big Dave Photography'. When she clicked on images she certainly got a surprise: Dave certainly is a big chap!