OT The Search to date


Blaney has visited and left a little brown pile for me. Cheers Ben.

Three sorts he has given me.

A kilo each of "Sticky" Dates, Dried Dates and a dozen lunch pack sized
boxes of Dates with Almonds.


Boxed Dates First.

Saudi in origin (as are they all) and according to the box produced by
Yousef Mouhsen Al Haidary and sent to us from The National Factory for
Dates Packing. About 10-12 grams per date.

A B&H *** packet sized box with 100g of dates from which the stones have
been removed and replaced with an Almond and kin yummy they are.
Anybody who has ever prepared a packed lunch for the kids will recognise
this as the Date based version of a box of nuts and raisins.

You open the box and are presented with a solid brown block wrapped in
cellophane. After ripping off the plastic you discover that somehow
they have managed to pack ten or a dozen dates into this space. A feat
only achievable if the dates are square. You sort of tear off a piece
and tuck in. The piece usually turns out to be an entire date, complete
with tasty fresh almond (a real and unexpected bonus).

Not terribly sweet but very tasty and satisfyingly chewy. A top quality
snack food. Those of you with kids should seek out something like
these.



Dried Dates.

These are labelled "Dates Dried Mabroom Saudi"

Put simply, strongly date flavoured toffee with a little roughage.

Yes they are dried. No argument about this at all, there is no moisture
in them whatsoever, the Biltong of Dates they are. They look just like
that Tunisian *** in coffins(tm darsy) we are familiar with but half
as big again and without all the glistening glucose.

For cooking purposes obviously, so I am cooking with them. I am baking
another practice Date and Walnut cake right now, made with these very
dates.

An absolute pig to cut up, have you ever tried cutting cold toffee with
a knife? Warming the knife on the gas for a couple of seconds helped a
bit but in the end I just split them down the middle, took out the
stone, chucked them in the freezer for 2 minutes, took them out and set
about them with a toffee hammer[1]. Job done.

A little too dry for simple fruit noshing type eating but they would
make a very good whole food substitute for toffee as they are. I won't
know until tomorrow but I suspect they are fine for cooking.



The "Sticky" Dates.

What can I say? These "Dates Sukaree Ma'asal Saudi" are sweet. No that
is not right, they are not sweet, sweet doesn't even come near. They
are as fresh and juicy as you like but so full of sugar that some of
them are beginning to crystallize and in places are distinctly crunchy.
I strongly suspect the word "Sukaree" may be a clue here.


They have been a bit battered about in they journey but it does seem to
me that these are the sort of things you take *off* the table when your
Dad comes round. Small, sweet, soft, succulent and sticky these are
probably good after dinner Dates. Although I am having mine instead of
dinner today. I might still have one or two after though.


Well done Blaney, 3 out of 3.




[1] Actually a 4oz cross pien hammer but who is counting.
--
steve auvache
one step closer to The Perfect Date.

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