How To Choose The Perfect Fig In The Grocery Store

I was in Paris last summer, and while wandering Montmartre with my friend Laura, we stopped at a small market stand. I bought 2 figs, and to this day they are the most amazing figs I have ever eaten - and I've eaten a lot of figs!

Laura recently went back to Paris, and one day in the mail I got a care package with some fig jam. I've been savoring it over the last few weeks, and finally finished it yesterday. Coincidentally, another friend of mine wrote a blog post about figs last week after feeling disappointed with her first fig experience (http://frenchfriestoflaxseeds.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/fig-ure-something-out).

I'm pretty sure the reason she wasn't wowed by her figs was that she got some that weren't fully ripe, and since I want everyone to appreciate the wonder of figs I wanted to share some information on how to pick figs.

If you are lucky enough to know someone with a fig tree, you could actually pick them off the tree. I spent some time at a friend's place last year and ate way more figs than is healthy while we picked. If you are picking them from the grocery store's produce section, the same rules apply but you likely won't get ones that have fully ripened on the tree.

How To Tell When A Fig Is Ripe

When a fig is ripe, it is so soft that you can feel the insides moving when you press it with your fingers. With very little pressure, a ripe fig will split at the bottom, which is how I open them to eat. Some of the ones in the store have slightly thicker skin since they were picked before they were ripe. Those ones may ripen after a few days, but aren't quite as good.

There are lots of different types of figs, and they all taste slightly different. I don't know what the proper names are for each kind, but there are generally the green-skinned and the purple-skinned varieties.

The purple ones are grown mostly in Europe, and that's the kind I had in Paris. They have a very sweet flavor, with a hint of strawberry. If you find purple figs in North America, they are most often imported from Europe and so will have been picked well before ripening.

The green ones are the variety that grow in North America, and are still delicious but have a more subtle flavor than the purple ones. Some have white flesh and some have pink flesh, the white being a softer flavor than the pink. You probably won't know which one it is until you open the fig, but most of them are the pink-fleshed ones.

How I Like To Eat My Figs

I usually eat my figs raw, just split open and gobbled down. I don't usually have the willpower to not eat them right away so I don't do anything more than that. They are, I hear, fantastic when baked, and I can imagine that they would be. If I had the strength to keep myself from eating them first, I would try mixing some maple syrup, cointreau and cinnamon to drizzle over the halves and then bake.

My friend with the blog wanted ideas for breakfast, and I suggested blending some banana and coconut milk as a base on which to place her figs. Any other ideas out there from those of you with more patience than me? Post below with your ideas and I will try them.

I had this crazy idea that writing about figs would get them out of my brain and I would stop craving them, but apparently no such luck... oh figues, je t'aime...