Pimp my fruit

Some 25 years ago, I tried a kaki, or persimmon, for the first time. I'm pretty adventurous where fruits are concerned and was looking forward to having my taste-buds tickled by this exotic fruit. I was in for a major disappointment as I found the gelatinous consistency and overpowering sweetness quite sickening and therefore made the rash decision to give kakis a wide berth in the future. Until last year that is, when a Japanese colleague – the persimmon is the "national fruit" of Japan after all– offered me a neatly sliced kaki which I reluctantly tried. It bore no relation to its squishy distant cousin I had spat out in the 1980s. Not only was it lighter in colour and surprisingly firm, it tasted like a delicate blend of melon, pear and mango. De-li-cious! Ever since then, I've been hooked on this new-and-improved kaki (generation 5.0 so to speak) and am looking forward to the few weeks when BILLA offers 2 for one €. The slimy variation co-exists and some people actually prefer it.

Purchase(s) of the day: none so far, the day is till young...