The Persimon saga

I had my first persimmon last year. A tomato like fruit, persimmon was just another of the many varieties of fruits available in Dubai’s multicultural, multi ethic society, not to be tried, just looked at. Anyway when I saw the fruit in my cousin’s fruit basket and wanted to what it was, she told me to try it and see. I loved the taste and ate a few more from the basket and then carried a couple more home with me to give my hubby. Well hubby dear is a strange specimen, he considers as fruits only apple, pear, orange, grapes and bananas and mangoes. He does not try anything else and he is stubborn. So when I forced a peeled persimmon down his throat, I did it knowing only too well what his reaction would be and he did not disappoint. He declared it a shame to the name of fruits and thought that something as mushy and sweet should not be called a fruit. So I gave up and tried it on my 4 year old. Well, he being made of the same stuff as his father gagged on the first piece and I told him I was going to kill him if he did not finish the fruit. So he finished it under duress.
I bought another box of persimmon and ate it all up myself, my son helped a little as he had developed a taste for it. A few more boxes later, the persimmon season got over and was forgotten.

Then a year later, yesterday at LuLu Hypermarket in Qusais I came across the fruit again and I told my friend who was with me that this was persimmon, a wonderful fruit that she should try. She bought three and I bought another three. I ate one the moment I came home, tried one on my son who gagged and showed every sign of throwing up, I finished the fruit myself.

Then the friend called today and said,”OH my God it was disgusting, I gagged and my husband gagged and he is still screaming obscenities at having been forced to eat the fruit. What in God’s name is it?”
Well now I am at a loss at all this. I love the taste, the mushiness and the texture of persimmon and can’t fathom how anyone cannot like it, But I suppose tastes vary from person to person. My next research topic is tastes and I will be trawling the web till I get information on this very touchy subject. Imagine someone calling something you absolutely love, disgusting. Well, the nerve!!!