fresh dates

[rshorens]

Despite living in California for the past 31 years, I never knew how deprived I was until I read your article in Vogue on the delights of eating fresh dates.

Miraculously, while on a Thanksgiving week trip to the UK last month, I discovered fresh dates from Israel at a fruit stall in the Covered Market in Oxford, of all places. They were wonderful, but I couldn't bring them home with me. Why is it so hard to find fresh dates here?

Thanks!

Roz

[Jeffrey Steingarten]

Dear Roz,

Oxford! Israel! Who knew?

Where do you live in California? I first discovered fresh dates ten years ago or more at the Santa Monica Wednesday market. My article/chapter gives good mail-order sources., at least as of two or three years ago. Sweet and fleshy and miraculous as fresh, fat giant medjools are, the most amazing are just-picked Barhis at their ripest and fattest, their sweetest and least dessicated. I found some at an Arab-owned grocery in Poway or somewhere up there in San Diego county. But the mail order sources for Barhi dates--especially if you speak with the people who work at the farm and they understand how high your standards are--should be even better.

Yours,

Jeffrey

[rshorens]

Dear Jeffrey,

Thanks for your comments. I live in Santa Cruz, about 90 minutes south of San Francisco, so Santa Monica is a bit far to go for a "date". But I wonder if the problem isn't just lack of demand. I'm going to try to talk to local produce managers at some of the natural foods stores here to see if there might be a way for them to order dates fresh when they are in season. Start a date revolution!

Happy 2004!

Best regards,

Roz

[Comfort Me]

Try Middle Eastern or Arab grocery stores. Call them and ask when or if they carry them. If they know of the interest, they might just order them.

I live in Chicago, and I can find them in almost all of the ten or so Arab/Turkish/Lebanese markets I know of.

I'll be honest -- I order them for centerpieces. I've never known how to eat them. The one I tasted was chalky and unpleasant tasting. So I just buy them 'cuz they are pretty, pretty things. Hmmm....I'm sounding a bit shallow today.

[trillium]

Oasis Date Gardens in southern California does mailorder. There was an article in Saveur about them a few months ago.

regards,

trillium

[Bill Klapp]

Roz, I simply cannot believe that you read Jeffrey's work and yet would not travel a great distance WITHIN THE SAME STATE to eat the best possible dates! Just think of the distances he has traveled and the sacrifices he has made for lesser foodstuffs!

[Pan]

Bill, I take it you're aware of just how big a distance you're discussing?

[Bill Klapp]

Pan, of course. Just having a little fun. I allude to the fact that Mr. Steingarten thinks nothing of going halfway around the globe in search of a single arcane ingredient.

[FistFullaRoux]

Oasis Date Gardens in southern California does mailorder.  There was an article in Saveur about them a few months ago.

regards,

trillium

If this is the same place that was on FN's Food Finds, they supposedly do a terrif date milkshake. A combination I never would have thought of, but I could see how it would work...

[jschyun]

Date shakes have been around for a long time. Most are miserable because they don't have enough dates or ice cream.

My favorite are the Barhis, as they are the sweetest and have the best texture, IMHO. I like to eat them frozen. They are extra chewy that way.

[docsconz]

When is fresh date season for mail order?

[Vikram]

I'll be honest -- I order them for centerpieces. I've never known how to eat them. The one I tasted was chalky and unpleasant tasting. So I just buy them 'cuz they are pretty, pretty things. Hmmm....I'm sounding a bit shallow today.

Aren't you making a mistake here - or more correctly, the mistake is in the way others are using the 'fresh dates' term itself? What you describe does sound like fresh dates - the straight from the tree, bright red or yellow, really fresh fruit which, as you note, are pretty to look at, but way too astringent for my taste.

What the others seem to be referring to are what I've seen described as 'soft dates' - dried and processed to some extent, but not the dead hard and chewy fruits we're most familiar with. 'Soft dates' are sensational - plump, soft and amazingly sweet.

I haven't eaten the medjools and barhis that Mr.Steingarten describes, but here in India we get what are called kimia dates from Iran which sound similar, and are fantastic just served by themselves.

Vikram