Thursday, October 11, 2007

Seen at The Market: White Pomegranates

You're strolling the farmers market stands and you glance at a sign that says "White Pomegranate." You feel like a hunter in a jungle spotting a white tiger or white elephant. Funny how the oddest of colors is often the one with no color at all.

I spotted these white pomegranates last weekend at the Ferry Plaza farmers market in San Francisco. But this same farmer just selling these pomegranates was also spotted at other farmers markets such as the one in downtown Berkeley. So I think he gets around.

I love pomegranates. It's one of my favorite exotic fruit, but most people don't like dealing with de-seeding it. (I did a demo early on in my blog here.) This white pomegranate is actually white to pink. And the seeds inside are very similar to a regular pomegranate, just slightly lighter in color. The taste is sweet. People around me thought it was really sweet, but I thought it was very similar to the regular version. So like yellow watermelon and purple cauliflower, these wild varieties are all about looks. But like they say, half of eating is done with the eyes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ben,
have u seen this blog..she shows how to seed the pomegranate by placing it under water..very cool..i need to try it..

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004100how_to_cut_and_deseed_a_pomegranate.php

Single Guy Ben said...

Thanks for the link. I haven't seen it.

I've seen several people recommend doing it underwater. I've tried it and don't really feel like it makes a big difference in separating. Like I said in my demo, as long as you take your time and just work the seeds, it just falls out for me. The concern about staining your area actually occurs more often when you first break into the pomegranate. So sometimes when I'm worried about that I'll split the pomegranate open in my sink.

However you get to the seeds, I think they're worth the effort.

Courtney said...

I just discovered a white pomegranate in a tiny market in the middle of Hanoi, Vietnam (I'm Australian but live here) The seeds were completely white, if not a tiny bit yellow coloured. They were incredibly juicy and sweeter than usual.
As for splitting them - I haven't watched your video but the easiest way I learned from an Indian lady was to slice just the skin into quarters, and then cut the little top bud out, break it open and get the seeds out. It doesn't take long and has minimal waste of those precious little gems!