IT'S SMALL AND dry and red all over. It is also delicious, expensive and, increasingly, seen in the very best places. But if you think the subject is sun-dried tomatoes, you're wrong.
That was last year's trendy dried red fruit. Modern food fads move at such a rapid pace that pumate (sun-dried tomatoes) now are placed on supermarket shelves. Meanwhile, this year's trendiest dried fruit hasn't made its way into the mainstream--yet.
But dried red tart cherries probably never will. For unlike tomatoes, which are found almost everywhere, tart cherries are rare. And it takes 8 pounds of fresh fruit to make a single pound of dried fruit. But fresh tart cherries, which are wonderful in pies, are even more delicious when dried until the flavor has become concentrated.
Sprinkled with a little sugar, they have a flavor unlike anything else. They are sour and sweet, with a fresh tanginess that makes you want to eat another as soon as the first is finished. They aren't much to look at--sort of like raisins, only red.
