sour obsession

It's winter in the Sunshine State, and while the weather may not give it away, the sunny-colored fruit all over grocery stores and farmer's markets couldn't make it any clearer. Yes, it's citrus season.

It all started with a giant pink grapefruit Tim and I picked up during a visit to the Oldsmar Flea Market in early December. It was the sweetest thing I'd eaten in a long time. Thus started my quest for more deliciously sweet grapefruit closer to home. I tried all the usual haunts: Ward's, the 441 farmer's market, the downtown farmer's market, and favorite roadside stands. Since then I have eaten a lot of grapefruit, but have yet to replicate the flavor of that sweet Oldsmar fruit. Along the way I've been picking up anything that looks interesting: sour oranges for Cuban cooking (mmm... mojo criollo marinade), ugli fruit (think orange, grapefruit,and tangerine hybrid), and honeybells (cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit.)

Now I usually have limes in the house for Cuban cooking and cocktails (Cuba Libre or Caipirinha, anyone?) Lemons usually come out for summertime tarts and lemonade. But when I visited Leesburg last week one of the antique stores had Ponderosa lemons on the counter for 50 cents. I figured it would taste more like a Meyer lemon, meaning it would be more sweet than tart. But when I sliced it open Sunday night with a mild chicken marinade in mind I was met with a super tart smell! I ended up using half of the giant lemon for a 3-serving pitcher of lemonade while Tim created a yummy lemon-garlic-Cachaça chicken creation for the grill. We indulged in a giant-sized pumelo (aka Chinese grapefruit) too. It had a really thick skin with tough membranes between the wedges of fruit. And lots and lots of seeds -- over 60! Some pieces tasted tart like grapefruit, some were more mild. It was deliciously messy.

I've certainly been having fun in my all-citrus kitchen, but I still have yet to find another perfectly tart grapefruit.