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Yes, this is indeed a slice of a ripe fuyu persimmon! Kudos to doggybloggy of ChezWhat? who guessed correctly within moments of me putting up the photo!
I hadn't tried a persimmon in over 25 years, after having had a bad experience with them as a kid. Persimmons look so much like tomatoes that I was totally weirded out when I bit into one and found it sickeningly sweet - a total fake-out to my tastebuds. At the time, I felt like my mom had played a mean trick on me.
Persimmons have become more mainstream in the past few years, even showing up at my local Wegmans. Perhaps it was time to give them another chance. A couple weeks ago, I stopped at my local Asian market and bought 2 fuyus at different stages of ripeness, one smooshy red one and a firm orange specimen.
We ate the red ripe one almost immediately - it barely held together when I cut into it, the insides bursting all over the plate. The skin was a bit tough but we ate it anyway, the juicy insides (like an over ripe tomato) were very sweet with the flavor of pear, mango, and papaya.
The orange fuyu has been slowly ripening on my counter for over 2 weeks. Apparently it's fine to eat when firm, but won't be as sweet. I'll probably wait for it to become soft and smooshy before eating it, but I bet it would be great sliced up in a salad right now. Another variety of persimmon, the acorn-shaped hachiya, is too astringent to eat before it's completely soft and ripe. Make sure you check which kind you have before you bite into it!
Now for something totally unrelated to food...Hubby Kris and I just got back from Dublin, Ireland, where we saw U2 in concert! I'll be writing more about our trip and local Irish food in future posts, but for now, here are some highlights from the concert:
Bunnies everywhere!:
This mirror was originally used in the Fun House at Palisades Park circa 1933:
We chose to do a 
Yum! Super creamy, a bit spicy from the Chai, with little crunchies from the blended Heath Bar:
Hubby is so easily amused:
The ice cream is made at Halo Farm, a nearby microdairy. Pints of high quality ice cream are only $2 at their 
Inside the microdairy:
Halo Pub is set up like a real pub, with hand-dipped hard ice cream or several flavors of soft serve 'on tap':
Several flavors of hard ice cream can be 'creamaided' - turned into soft serve via their Creamaider machine. Also offered: 'Weakdae', a smaller sized sundae:
Kris' Coffee Chocolate Almond ice cream (1 full scoop - only $1.75!):
Can you believe this is only 1/2 a scoop of Rum Raisin? (even cheaper at $1.25):
Check out the line up outside:
We love this place because they use organic seasonal ingredients from local farms. A small cup ($3.50) comes with two flavors so I chose two sorbets, Purple Plum & Lavender and Blueberry Basil:
The Blueberry Basil sorbet had intense blueberry flavor with a tiny hint of Jersey sweet basil. The Purple Plum and Lavender sorbet was a bit strong, Kris said he could still taste the lavender several hours later!:
Kris' large Spoon Sundae featuring 3 gelato flavors: Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, and Cafe Latte ($7):
And don't leave without trying their famous Banana Whip, made with only 1 ingredient - organic bananas:
The Banana Whip tasted pretty amazing, but I felt like I'd eaten 5 bananas afterwards:
Self Serve, $0.45 per ounce:
Lots of toppings to choose from:
New York non-fat cheesecake yogurt, with strawberries, graham cracker crumbs and little bits of mochi:
Longan's better known cousin, 
Longan literally means "dragon eye" in Chinese due to its appearance - underneath the thin leathery beige/brown skin you'll find translucent juicy flesh surrounding a non-edible shiny brown pit. The size and shape is similar to a red globe grape. The texture is also grape-like but the flavor is really unique - so unique in fact that I had to eat almost half my stash to come up with an accurate description for you guys (OK, maybe I was just greedy - as a child, I would eat them non-stop until I gave myself a tummy ache). I may have to go back and eat the rest for a better description but for now, here's my best attempt: sweet, fragrant, refreshing, and slightly floral, like the nectar from a 
Although longan hasn't inspired me yet to write poetry (like I did for my 
The skin is easy to remove, just use your fingernail to pierce it gently and then it slips off very easily:
Unadulterated sweet glory, translucent, shimmering juicy flesh:
Separate the flesh from the shiny pit:
All gone! (sorry, Kris)
One of my top 5 favorite fruits of all time. I bet you'll love it!
Hubby Kris and I had originally planned to try at least 2 of their "perkily perfect" hot dogs during our recent trip to Vancouver but alas, our stomachs were already stretched to their limits, nearing the end of our 
Super juicy dog that 'snaps' when you bite into it, a little sweet from the drizzle of teriyaki sauce, little salty from the 
