Fresh figs - a great way to tackle Salman Rushdie
Fall is fresh fig season - one of the best fruit finales you can imagine before you're forced by lack of other choice to settle for this kind or that kind of apple (how many pomegranates can you eat in a week) until tiny clementines come in after Christmas. (Ignore any mandarines that rattled around emptily in their sock of a skin - they're flavorless) .
Figs are around 30 calories for those 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 1.4 ounces in weight. If you eat, as I have done, 15 of them in one go, I don't imagine many of those calories have time to hang about. After around 3 hours' digestion, they rush straight through you. Which makes for a series of 2 a.m. return visits to the loo. Painless, though. And a good time to tackle Salman Rushdie.
It's their high fiber content - higher than any other common fruit or vegetable (though I wouldn't recommend including an artichoke in your fig supper) that turns them into a laxative. The lignin they are high in is an indigestible food fiber.
They also contain tryptophan which promotes sleep. But of course when you've eaten too many of them, their laxative effect will keep you awake...
If you're a fig fanatic like I am, don't waste your money at Whole Foods. They wrap their plastic baskets in cling wrap so you can't check them out. (Why does a chain that boasts its environmentally responsible behavior use either cling wrap or plastic punnets?) Too many of the figs will be hard as golf balls while others will have turned to moldy pulp. Buy them from a Middle East or Asian grocery where the fruit are sold loose for you to pick out your own.
3 Comments
gansie @endless simmer
love your mini rant on whole foods. can you share the names of these alternative markets?
Julia
You bet! I've listed so many of them the easiest bet is to type Persian markets or Greek and Middle East markets into the Search box. Any that come up in bold red will have separate more detailed articles written about them. Happy food hunting!
Dad gansie
Thanks to gansie I've become addicted to them usually not more than 3-4 at a time
they are tasty
Add Comment