Try getting a date with a girl age 21 or younger. They are not dry or pitted and more tasty than the California variety.

 

I'm also from California and haven't seen dates for sale in any of my travels around the Philippines. There are imported nuts here (NOT the human variety! :D) from the Middle East, but I haven't seen any dates, which is kind of surprising. I miss a good Medjool, which are my favorite! With all of the OFW's working in the Middle East you would think one of them would have the bright idea to bring back and sell dates! I think the average Filipino doesn't know what they are though, as they definitely won't grow in a humid environment, at least the varieties we are used to from California.

Medjool dates, not dry, but juicy!

 

Anybody seen them in Cebu by any chance?

 

Maybe they do not store well.

With the amount of moisture even in dry date, they may not store well here. I shipped some of my cat's favorite dry cat food here. When I opened I up with was covered with a grey substance.... hmmm... had to feed it to the local dogs. There has got to be some good reason they are not available here although we all know many times we ask for things that we can see over the clerks shoulder and are told they are not available and do not know when they will get them. More Fun in the Philippines....

 

They might be available in Manila. There is a recipe called "Food for the Gods", which calls for dates and walnuts, which gained some popularity in some circles in Manila back in the 80's.

 

We used to buy them at Fortune Mart also. Now I know who my competition was. lol So far we have not seen them anywhere else.
We also used to buy Del Monte canned spinach there and Motts apple sauce. We can't find that any place else either. We went to the "new" small Fortune Mart but the clerks had no idea what happened to all the stock from the other store or if and when they would re-open another store somewhere. I'll let you know if we ever find out. The new Fortune Mart is on the same street as the fire dept. It was called Fortune Tree. Maybe one of us can catch the owner in someday and find out what the deal is.
We had no problem storing the dates. After opening the 3 lb package we just stored them in the ref for months with no problem. We always found them to be very fresh. Hopefully someone will pick-up on stocking some of the good selling items that Fortune Mart used to stock.

 

Try fortune mart too at ecoville subdivision they are smaller but may have them.
other im sure my mother inlaw would be a dry date.
cheers

 

Thanks for the info, I share the experience with "Charlie T", that they were very good quality, always fresh, albeit not cheap...

I will try to talk with Super Lee, them being connected with Gaysano...

 

i've had a dry date or 2 out of why not disco. Some of them been pitted many many times