List Item: Try three quarters of the 1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die
Food item: Medlar
There are many reasons why I settle for a non-fresh version of list fruit when doing this list. Cashew apples were perishable, quince is usually eaten as a paste or jelly and I had no idea what the Japanese for acerola was so juice drinks and sweets made sense.
For medlars… there is a tendency to eat them as they start to go putrid. There are good reasons to do this, don’t get me wrong, since it means the flesh starts to break down and become a whole lot sweeter and more gelatinous. Sounds nice until you realise that the window of opportunity between this and plain gone off isn’t too wide. Enter: medlar compote.
Being a compote I knew I needed to eat this with cake; angel layer cake to be more specific. The compote itself was spiced, so the main things that came though were the sweetness of the fruit and the different mouthfeels of the flesh (springy and jellylike) and skin (thin, paper-like and flaky).
This went really well with the angel layer cake since the cake is only a light sponge with a hint of a vanilla flavour. Could I have just eaten the compote from the jar? Well yes but everything is so much more fun with colourful cake.
Progress: 559/751
