Citrus!!

I promised that I would write more about my fascination with citrus. As I was preparing to leave Shanghai in early September last year, the street fruit vendors and the stores were full of what looked like very green mandarin oranges. Naturally I was puzzled since mandarins are not ready to eat until late December at the earliest, and who would sell and eat green ones (unlike apples or bananas, citrus don't ripen after you pick them, they just slowly go from optimal to bad)? The next time I went to a grocery store, I bought one, to satisfy my curiosity. I was well rewarded with a really tangy orange/mandarin like taste and ended up going back to the store and buying as many as I thought that I could eat before departing. Since my return, I have not seen these. Will have to make the mental note to look for them in late summer, about the same time as the chestnut vendors hit the streets with the hot treats.

While it has been disappointing not to find the green mandarins, the disappointment has been assuaged with the latest yummy citrus here only for a short time I am sure. C. ordered these through our grocery delivery service, and so they arrived at our door this past weekend. They are a much smaller cousin of the mandarin and they come in bags, often with the leaves still attached to them ( I have included an American quarter in the photo, to give you a sense of size- sorry the images ae dark). They are easy to peel, and once peeled, you just pop them in your mouth whole. They literally just burst in your mouth. They are the sweetest citrus I have ever had. Furthermore, they are hugely addictive and it is hard to stop eating them. But they are fruit, and since they are so small, one must need to eat at least five to equal to one regular size fruit, so the binge is sanctioned in the name of health, for as long as they will be available in the stores. Thank goodness they are still plentiful at the moment.