My idea of window shopping: browsing new fruits and vegetables at the grocery store.
On a recent trip to Jewel-Osco, I spotted a basket of yellow, ball-shaped fruits nestled among the pears, peaches and plums. They were all connected together on a vine; when I picked up the bunch, the spheres hung together like grapes.
I took a closer look. These, the sign said, were yellow dates (also known as khalals). Intriguing, as they looked nothing like the shriveled brown ovals Americans love to wrap in bacon.
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I reached out Bob Stone, head buyer for Goodness Greeness, which supplies more than 300 Midwestern supermarkets with produce. Yellow dates, it turns out, are the dates we’re used to — just younger.
Yellow dates are just starting the ripening process, during which starches break down into sugar, Stone said. Sure enough, my dates, crisp like a pear, were bitter, with almost no sweetness.
“I’ve never seen them for sale in the United States,” Stone added. “It’s an acquired taste.”
I found that I liked them best sliced into a salad or blended into a fruit smoothie. Leave a bunch on you counter, and in about a month, they’ll be the sugary golden-brown treats you love to eat every fall. Or, according to Stone, you can freeze them, and they’ll last for years: “It doesn’t damage the sugars at all. It just separates the skin from the fruit.”
If your local Jewel-Osco doesn’t carry them, you can request them, and the store will try to comply. “All stores have the ability to order this product,” said Mary Frances Bragiel, Jewel-Osco communications manager. “All of our customers may put a request in for produce, and (we) will do its best to source the product.”