The new ya pears are in and I just had some mangosteens for lunch but for me the most exciting food news of the week is that True Thai is going to have dried persimmons in our lunch buffet this Friday!
OK, maybe you would rather have ya pears and mangosteens but they're in season now and will be around for a while. Dried persimmons, on the other hand, only come once a year and are eaten by Asians to help celebrate Chinese New Year's which will be this Sunday, February 14.
Maybe you have not heard of dried persimmons before, but if you put them into Google you get 229,000 responses. If you use the Chinese words for dried persimmons [干柿子], you may get even more. In China, there are over 2,000 kinds of persimmons. Chinese immigrants brought persimmons to California in the mid 1800s. Persimmons do not like snow, and are not fond of extreme heat.
Since there are so many different kinds of persimmons, there are many different kinds of persimmon trees. I thought this one looked pretty:
So remember: this Friday True Thai will celebrate Chinese New Year's by having dried persimmons in our buffet. Friday I will post again to let you know more about Sunday's Chinese New Year's/Valentine's Day celebration at True Thai.
