Figgy Fun

Check out these babies! My grandpa's King Fig tree has been busting out some real beauties lately. I LOVE green figs. They're so beautiful and red on the inside. When I lived in the Italian country-side, there were giant green fig trees all over the place. We could walk outside our door, and in a matter of 10 minutes fill an entire bowl with luscious, ripe figs. I can't tell you how often I remember those figs trees... sigh.

See, now this is a *perfect* fig. A fig is at its single most delicious state when it splits open from its own ripeness. It's like a giant handful of heaven. Yes it is. Can you see how truly massive this fig is?

Here's another illustration of size. That's a quarter up there on the left. Now that the birds have discovered the figs, we are in a constant bidding war with them, which means picking the figs before they are fully ripened. But this first batch off the tree, before the birds caught on, they were truly spectacular.

I made the Caramelized Fig Cake from Millenium Restaurant's 2nd cookbook: "The Artful Vegan."

Here's a slice, served with Lemon Anglaise Sauce. It was a good cake, and easy too. But I don't think I'll make it again. Something's gotta be DAMN good to be worthy of sacrificing even a few fresh figs. The Lemon Anglaise sauce was darned good by the way.