I know it’s weird, but somehow kumquats have evaded me all these years. Until yesterday, I had never eaten a kumquat. They look like miniature oranges, but they sure don’t taste like them.
The inside is so tart that it is pungent; even a little bit salty. The rind balances, though, with its gentle sweetness. The crunchy seeds are almost off-putting, but if you get past the tart and the crunch and you like strong tastes, the kumquat is a refreshing treat. If your taste buds don’t take kindly to tart, then get ready to pucker.
That’s why it’s really fun to give one to your four-year-old to try. You know you want to get the little stinker back for all the sleepless nights, the stretch marks and the impending gray hairs. So give him a kumquat and tell him it’s a little orange. The look on his face when he tastes it will carry you through the next several midnight visits.
In all seriousness, it was not my intention to torture my son with a kumquat. He likes strong tastes — eats lemons like oranges; could devour an entire jar of olives in one sitting — so I figured he’d really enjoy the in-your-face taste of the kumquat. He thought he did, too — at first. As he bit further into the kumquat, though, the look of displeasure soured his cherubic face and the dimples all but disappeared.
They were replaced with what he calls his “silly soda face;” you know the one, when a little kid drinks something fuzzy and reacts with a half pucker / half tongue sticking out, with his eyes mush wider than normal? Yeah, that face. So the kumquat didn’t go over with the preschool demographic.
Would I buy them again? Probably not. Even though I found them refreshing, after a couple of kumquats, I really felt like the acid was getting to me, and this happened twice. I think I’ll stick with grapefruit. All in all, kumquats are a bit much for most members of this house, but it was definitely fun trying them.
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 28, 2009 @ 10:54 EST5EDT
What I can never get over is popping the whole fruit into your mouth, rind and all. Seems so very wrong…
I haven’t had a kumquat in years and years…its really just the novelty of being able to eat the whole thing I guess. Now I’m tempted to buy some to see what face my daughter makes, but she’d probably poke it with her tongue and tell me “it’s yuck” before she even took a bite, or she’d try to get me to peel the damn thing. Or both. That’s just how she rolls.
My wife’s aunt has a beautiful piece of rolling land in Israel. She has a “garden” in her backyard; row upon row of every fruit and vegetable you can imagine. The last time we were there her crops were coming in for the first time, and she told us to try one of those mini oranges…When you try a food in a country known for growing fresh, accurately-tasting food, and it’s a tart one (to say the least), you might find yourself licking the ground to counter-balance the taste.
We’d already packed up a bagful of goodies at that point, and had thrown in a bunch of kumquats, too. We kept on forgetting and popping them in our mouths. They should come with a warning label!
My three year-old niece took a piece in her mouth, and immediately did that flick it out thing with her tongue that toddlers do, like it barely even skimmed the surface of her mouth. This from a girl who had picked a wild olive in a park and tried to eat it!