Jujube

Let me tell you about jujube, and you'll see — it's not just another dried fruit on the shelf.

Hold a fresh one in your hand: small, oval, green to yellow with a red-brown blush, light enough to sit in your palm without weighing it down. Bite into it and you get that crunch and mild sweetness people compare to a small apple — that's the taste and bite, not the look. Leave it on the counter for days and the skin wrinkles and darkens to deep red-brown, and the flesh turns chewy, nothing like the crisp fruit it was. One piece weighs about 15 grams, so don't expect it to fill you up; it's a small sweet bite, not a meal.

Choosing it is simple: the skin should be smooth, not sticky, and the fruit should feel firm in your hand, not rock hard and not mushy. Smell it — it should be clean and fruity, nothing sour, nothing musty.

Some people say jujube is just a dried date with a different name. No! A date grows on a palm; jujube grows on a small tree, and it's a different fruit altogether. Mix up the two in your head, and you'll bite into jujube expecting that soft date texture all the way through — and get caught off guard by its firmer, chewier bite instead.