A Toddler's Breakfast

(excuse the crappy resolution...these were taken with my webcam; it's all I've got for now)

As I type this blog post, TheFry is shoving bites of breakfast in his mouth one right after the other.

He is eating a scrambled egg and a piece of bread smeared with persimmon jam.

He does not wait until chewing up one bite to cram more in.

If it's in front of him, he will undoubtedly reach for it and shove it in his little face.

That cute little face! (yes, that IS a washing machine under the gas range [it's a two-top, ugh...] in our kitchen)

This season--the end of summer, that is--is the season for all kinds of ripe fruit. Persimmons are some of the cheapest fruits to come by, with a pack of 6 costing 3,000 won (or less, depending on which neighborhood you live in. We live in a fairly wealthy part of town, thus the more expensive...everything!).

You can usually choose between ripe-enough-to-eat persimmons and ripe-enough-to-be-disgusting persimmons. We bought a pack of the latter.

(thank you Google Image Search)

These persimmons can barely be eaten. They cannot be sliced. Once you peel them, a few clumps of fruit fall apart in a stringy, gooey mess.

Furthermore, the persimmon is not the sweet, tart fruit that spoils us in North America. They are barely sweet (even though they are very ripe), and their flavor is reminiscent of pumpkin.

So what do you do with a fruit that you can't eat straight-up? You make jam, of course!Our big challenge was to find some kind of thickener. I believed that Pectin would be impossible to track down in any location within walking distance from us, and I was correct! I even joked with PapaFish that we might just have to boil a chicken and scrape off the gelatin if we couldn't find anything else. (eww)

We did find gelatin in with the German food at our local HomePlus. However, gelatin does not behave like pectin exactly. Even when the jam cooled, it still seemed runny, so we added more gelatin. In the end, the jam hardened, and it was as stiff as jelly candy.

So we added more persimmons!

At last, we had wonderful persimmon jam, and now that the fruit is sweet and able to be smeared on the most delicious dainties, we can rest well.

On a side note: PapaFish has been working like a madman in the kitchen the past couple of weeks. He single-handedly made the persimmon jam. Additionally, he has prepared kimchi with both radish and cabbage.

Next week, for TheFry's first birthday, we will be making spaghetti and probably having another cake adventure. More details to come!