Prunes, the REAL Musical Fruit

I know this is kind of weird, but I think I like prunes. I feel like I’m about 30 years too young for this emotion, but I’m openly admitting it nonetheless in case there’s a Youthful Prune-eaters Club out there that I can join.

One of my earliest experiences with prunes was not a particularly good one. It was at Lou Mitchell’s restaurant, in the shadow of the Sears Tower in Chicago. This is a diner of “extras” – you get piping-hot donut holes when you walk in the door, ladies get little boxes of Milk Duds as they wait in line, and yes, you even get a prune as part of every meal (maybe to balance the high-calorie diner food?). Because there’s always a line at Lou’s, we opted to sit at the counter for faster service. As soon as we sat down, the busboy put a dish of prunes in front of each of us. They were very fresh – sweet and wet, with the pits still inside. Quite hungry, and knowing that it might be a while before we got our food, I decided to see what this prune thing was all about, and ended up somewhat choking down the fleshy fruit, not at all sure that I liked the strong favor and the slippery texture.

The busboy, mistaking my desperate hunger for an enthusiasm for prunes, decided to hook me up with another prune, giving me a sweet wink as he took away my pit-dish and put another prune on the counter. I swallowed nervously and tried to smile enthusiastically, but did take my time getting around to prune #2, lest a prune #3 not be far behind.

So, it’s surprising that now I’m eating at least a serving of 7 prunes every day after dinner. I may have been roped in by the clever advertising on the package – they are not called “prunes” (except in very small print) but rather “dried plums,” which sounds much more appealing. The packaging also talks a lot about all the great nutritional elements of a prune (other than just the fiber that old people love them for) and it’s pretty convincing. In addition, the mini prunes I eat are more like big raisins than the wet, slimy lump I had at Lou Mitchell’s years ago, though the flavor is the same.

Try a prune out and see what you think. I’ll let you know when I start drinking any of those powered fiber mixers old folks are always advertising on TV. Then you can really start to worry about my premature aging.