#ripeness

#ripeness

In Japanese aesthetics, shibui describes a felt sense of something that is perfectly what it is: balanced, unembellished, elementally complex but complete without adornment. Shibui can describe many things: a baseball pitcher's clean throw, the grain of weathered wood, or the curve of a handmade bowl. But the concept grows from the original meaning of shibui - the tongue-twisting astringency of an unripe persimmon - a mouthfeel so viscerally unpleasant it became the negative space that defines perfection.

To determine the best cantaloupe, look for a slipped melon, which naturally falls from the vine at peak ripeness, as opposed to a clipped melon that has been picked early.