# Loquats **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266 "2009-03-30T06:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/1 "2009-03-30T06:26:16Z")
Anyone try these little yellow fruits before? In Armenian they’re called “nor ashkar,” which, directly translated, means “new world.” They’re small, yellow, have a thin skin and two big seeds inside. Absolutely delicious 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/2 "2009-03-30T06:41:40Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Anyone try these little yellow fruits before? In Armenian they’re called “nor ashkar,” which, directly translated, means “new world.” They’re small, yellow, have a thin skin and two big seeds inside. Absolutely delicious 🙂 Yep, they’re good. I only know because there’s a tree in the yard. I don’t think the local supermarkets carry them. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/3 "2009-03-30T09:13:50Z")
Yes we had a tree in our garden too. Yum! Only too small! They have a wonderful flavour, only beaten by Feijoas! Mmmmmmm it’s Feijoa season! YUM! ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/4 "2009-03-30T13:18:04Z")
When I lived in Austin many years ago, I ate (no, devoured) them off the local trees when they were ripe. These are truly the most delicious fruit on Earth. I’m sure there is some technical reason why they are not available for sale anywhere, but I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/5 "2009-03-30T13:59:10Z")
It really is true, if you think about starting here on the Dope you only have to wait a little while and someone else will probably start one for you. I was doing some yard work a couple weeks ago and noticed my loquat tree was fruiting. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted them. Crazy because I’ve been here 12 years and the tree came with the house, I think the only time I remember the tree is when it’s not fruiting. So I thought about picking some but wasn’t sure what to do with them. Do you just eat them plain, make preserves, use in cooking? ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/6 "2009-03-30T17:24:47Z")
Just pick one, peel the thin skin off with your thumbnail (okay, so that’s who I do it, anyway), and eat the meat - be careful of the two large seeds inside, just spit them back out. Delicious. They’re all over near Tallahassee, where I live, and you see people just picking and eating them fairly often. There’s a big tree right by my office, and people strip it every year to get all the sweet goodness. One of my coworkers makes them into wine. But she calls them “Chinese plums”. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/7 "2009-03-30T18:32:09Z")
Yep just pick off the tree and eat. Tastes better without the skin but people eat them skin on too. ---
**Author:** ![I\_of\_the\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/53a042/32.png) [@I\_of\_the\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_of_the_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/8 "2009-03-30T21:31:27Z")
When I was a kid and had access to a grove, I used to eat these until I was sick. From memory, they rot fairly quickly off the tree - perhaps that’s why they don’t get retailed? I had some from a tin recently, they were… not that good. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/9 "2009-03-30T21:57:10Z")
When I saw your thread title, I nitially thought you were talking about a new breed of Lolcats. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/10 "2009-03-31T00:47:45Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > When I saw your thread title, I nitially thought you were talking about a new breed of Lolcats. Loquat, the fancy foreign lolcat. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/11 "2009-03-31T01:54:50Z")
Loquats! Miserable untrustworthy savory delicious loquats. A friend of my grandfather’s owned a mini-golf course that had a colossal loquat tree on property. Oh my lord I scarfed down a sickening number of loquats. The smooth glossy skin, the cool sweet pulp, those strangely adorable little seeds. There is nothing more refreshing on a hot day than a fresh loquat. I could never get enough loquats. The amount of sweet golden fruit that tree produced was astonishing. But it was all the way over on the other side of town! So of course I had to persuade my folks to buy me my own loquat tree. My very own! We went to the local nursery and bought a sapling. Soon, soon I would command my own vast hoard of succulent treasure! Apparently loquat trees grow at the rate of ONE LEAF PER YEAR. Or possibly it was the difference in the soil or something, I dunno. I tried fertilizers, I tried potting soil, I tried more water, I tried less water, I tried hand-pollination, I tried prayer, I tried voodoo. I worked on that ungrateful tree for the better part of a decade. Every year it would produce a deliberately insulting little tiny cluster of flowers, which would then die. In all those years, it produced a grand total of ONE fucking loquat. Which was eaten, by a bug. I hate loquats. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/12 "2009-03-31T02:01:50Z")
A couple of years ago I was in Israel and had them for the first time. I had no idea what they were, and thought they were some sort of dwarf pear. The people I was eating dinner with had to show me how to get the seeds out and eat them. I’ve \*\*never \*\*seen them in the US, although I did later find some loquat leaf herbal tea at a Chinese market in Maryland. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/13 "2009-03-31T03:47:55Z")
> [@calm\_kiwi](#): > > Yes we had a tree in our garden too. Yum! Only too small! > > They have a wonderful flavour, only beaten by Feijoas! > > Mmmmmmm it’s Feijoa season! YUM! The best thing about both loquats and feijoas is they’re practically weeds here, so the fruit is always abundant and free. Mmmm, free feijoas… ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loquats/491266/14 "2009-03-31T09:22:28Z")
I love both feijoa and loquats - ours (in the _Bay of Plenty_) were indeed plentiful. My extremely capable mother would bottle vast amounts of both for later use. Feijoa and Apple crumble. Loquats with weetbix/porridge/cornflakes/honeypuffs. I’m hungry now. Si