Persimmon Salad

I am in love with persimmons.  If you've never had a persimmon, they look like orange tomatoes, but are firmer with a thick skin.  The flesh is soft, sweet, and almost creamy, kind of like a mix between a melon and a mango.  There are two kinds of persimmons available- fuyu and hachiya.  The hachiya are heart-shaped and are very astringent, so you must wait to eat them until they are extremely ripe-almost like they are going bad.  Otherwise they will leave an awful dry/bitter taste in your mouth.  But if you wait 'till they are super soft, you can just cut the top off and scoop out the insides like pudding.  The fuyu variety are tomato-shaped and you can eat them like an apple.  When persimmon season comes, I am in heaven!  I eat them whole, or slice them and put them into salads with arugula, avocados, and pecans.  My friend Hilary knows how much I love them, and the other night brought over a bunch of beautifully ripe and shiny persimmons for us to eat.  She cut them up and marinated them in lime juice and fresh vanilla beans.  The tartness of the lime and the floral taste of the vanilla brought out the perfect flavor of the persimmons.  Try this simply delicious recipe out and enjoy the persimmon season while it lasts!