Umeboshi
A sour, pickled Japanese fruit
Umeboshi (Japanese: 梅干し, pronounced [ɯmeboɕi], lit. 'dried ume') are pickled (brined) ume fruits common in Japan. Umeboshi is often translated as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums'. Ume (Prunus mume) is a species of fruit-bearing tree in the genus Prunus, which is often called a "plum", but is actually more closely related to the apricot. Pickled ume which are not dried are called umezuke (梅漬け).
Umeboshi are a popular tsukemono ('pickled thing'; preserved or fermented) and are extremely sour and salty. Sweet umeboshi may be made with honey. Umeboshi are usually served as a side dish for rice or eaten on rice balls (often without removing the pit) for breakfast and lunch. They are occasionally served boiled or seasoned for dinner.
Physical characteristics
Umeboshi are usually round and vary from smooth to very wrinkled. Usually they taste salty, and are extremely sour due to high citric acid content, but sweeter versions exist as well.
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This entry incorporates text from “Umeboshi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.