What are these small yellow fruits?

August 19, 2007 6:12 AM

What are these waxy yellow fruit?

I purchased them on a whim, but now they have begun to loom monstrously and weigh upon my consciousness. I thought they would be a tasty sour little fruit, but instead they are waxy and pretty much impossible to stomach. They hang in clusters upon thin yellow vine-like branches.

Please help! What are these fruit!?

posted by yoz420 to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Kumquats, I think. The rind is supposed to be the better part.
posted by teg at 6:24 AM on August 19, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, teg, but they are definitely not kumquats, they do not have that citrus-like skin. The skin is more like that of a plum, but drier and tougher. In fact, the whole of the fruit is rather dry.

Also, they have a large pit (stone?) in the middle, I think kumquats have little seeds like a lemon, although it's been a while since I saw one.
posted by yoz420 at 6:31 AM on August 19, 2007

Where did you purchase them? From who?
posted by Flunkie at 6:43 AM on August 19, 2007

Best answer: Yellow date? Probably not ripe yet...
posted by Andrhia at 6:45 AM on August 19, 2007

And here is an image of yellow dates showing how they grow in strands.
posted by Andrhia at 6:51 AM on August 19, 2007

Response by poster: Flunkie: I bought it from my local corner shop here in London. It's run by people whom I suppose to be Lebanese.
posted by yoz420 at 7:07 AM on August 19, 2007

Loquats, maybe. If that's the case, you should be waiting until they're a bit softer (like an apricot) and peeling them.
posted by casarkos at 7:22 AM on August 19, 2007

No, Andrhia is right. I've eaten them myself. Definitely unripe dates. They have a light date sweetness and a very starchy mouthfeel.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:22 AM on August 19, 2007

Put them in a closed paper bag till they ripen, they will be yummy! Yellow dates can become very sweet.
posted by convex at 2:02 PM on August 19, 2007

Looks like Longan to me.
posted by prolific at 2:25 PM on August 19, 2007

Loquats definitely don't match your description (though they look fairly similar to the picture, but not quite), however it really sounds like you wanted loquats, so next time try to get some of them.

(Now I'm going to go and think about happy childhood days sitting up the loquat tree in my garden gorging on those fabulous little things.)
posted by The Monkey at 4:21 AM on August 20, 2007

They are in my market now too. I almost bought them in honor of this question, then passed.

Here is a blogger's take.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:58 AM on August 21, 2007