eaten fresh, dried, pickled, in rice-based
cakes, and fermented into alcoholic drinks.
Pomegranate Pomegranates are fruits of the
shrubby tree Punica granatum, a native of the
arid and semiarid regions of the
Mediterranean and western Asia; the finest
varieties are said to grow in Iran. With their
dull, dry rind surrounding two layered
chambers of translucent, ruby-like fruitlets
(there are also pale and yellow varieties), they
figured very early in mythology and art.
Pomegranate-shaped goblets have been found
in prehistoric Troy, and in Greek myth it was
a pomegranate that tempted Persephone and
kept her in the underworld. Pomegranates are
very sweet, fairly tart, and often astringent
thanks to their strongly pigmented juice well-
stuffed with anthocyanins and related
phenolic antioxidants. Juice manufactured by
crushing whole fruits is much more tannic
than the fruitlets themselves; the rind is so