Jujubees

This blog is originally a home-cooking site, but I was introduced to what's sometimes called a Chinese Apple at a farmers market, and I felt compelled to share.

There is an (awful) hard-jelly candy called a jujubee. I don't know where that name came from, but this is the real thing.

The fruit, jujubee, comes from a tree, and doesn't look appetizing necessarily: a rusty-brown color and a dull, thuddy sound it gives when you tap it:

It looks like a date, almost. It definitely, though, doesn't feel like a date. It feels hollow almost, light, unsubstantial:

But when you bite into it, oh man! The flavor is hard to describe. The consistency is like an apple, but much drier. Much drier, and maybe a little spongier, but in the apple ballpark. The pit or seed is large and mostly almond shaped. It doesn't drip, like a juicy apple would:

It tastes creamy. Not tart, or sour, or even all that sweet; creamy. It's so weird, and yet, so damned good you'll find yourself drawn back to their bag, again and again. Words fail to explain this strange quality of the jujubee. Everything about them is a little, eh, different.