Justin and Nana Eat Weird Stuff for Your Entertainment: British Plums

Despite all the complaining the British do on the subject, there is at least one major benefit of the UK's membership in the European Union: dirt-cheap fresh fruit. Today, however, Nana and I stay a bit closer to home to taste a pair of diminutive British plums.

 

Now, if you read a lot of 18th and 19th century literature--and really, who doesn't these days?--you've probably got a quite a few varieties of plum lurking at the back of your vocabulary: the damask, perhaps, or the mirabelle, whose exotic names make them the plums of choice for purveyors of purple prose. 

But the Victoria and the greengage get their fair share of love, too--enough that, when I saw a box of the things outside a local fruit and veg, my first thought was, "So that's what a greegage is . . . !"

 

I immediately bought two of each. They were promptly devoured. This is not only a result of the size (about half as big as a regular plum), but also of the utter deliciousness.

The Victoria is simply a very sweet little plum, with none of the tartness of a regular plum (if eaten firm). The greengage, though, is another beast entirely: kind of like a mild peach or apricot crossed with a very ripe green grape. Yum!