Shirazi Figs. Leitz Elmarit 90mm with Bellows II

Some months back, my Editor was online replenishing our supplies of often-used spices from a new - to us - vendor in New York.  Part of the order was a supply of dried figs and pears.  The package arrived and having inspected everything, we discovered that the bag of figs looked utterly desiccated and inedible.  My Editor was grumpy, and immediately got on the horn to the store, since the figs had been quite pricey.  She reached the proprietor himself - it must be quite a small outfit - and grumped at him about the figs, expecting a lot of push-back.  Instead, the man was completely charming and said, "No, no, these are Shirazi figs, they're always like that.  I urge you to open the bag and try one.  If you don't think they're delicious, don't even send them back, I'll just take them off the bill".  And so we did, and he was right: very dry, almost crunchy, and intensely sweet.  Like candy.  They come from Iran or Afghanistan.  Now we're hooked, ordering them several pounds at a time, one or two after dinner.  A shipment just came this week, so I put a couple under the macro lens.  Their actual diameter is about that of a U.S. quarter dollar.