KUMQUAT YOU SAY?
And, of course, the funniest food of all, kumquats. ~George Carlin
LITTLE DID I KNOW
During a recent foray into the green market a table full of kumquats called out my name. I was familiar with the little citrus ovals, but had had limited exposure. Picking out some with minimal green spots (unripened areas, I surmised), I bought about half a pound.
At home they went into the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter and I tried one immediately. Young and tender, eating the peel and all, expelling the seeds generally two or three per. Ew, a little more sour than I was expecting. Perhaps they just need to ripen a little more.
The kumquats today looked a little riper, the skin even beginning to wither a bit so I figured that the sugars were developing nicely inside.
Famished after a day of shopping and swimming, I putting on some rice for chicken leftovers, spied the miniature orange fruit and popped one in my mouth to soothe a very empty tummy. Nice. Not so sour. The size and shape of grape tomatoes, kumquats are poppable, so I popped then as I cooked. Over the course of the twenty minutes it took to make dinner, I had eaten about eight kumquats and began to get a very strange sensation in my mouth. They were definitely leaving their mark, and I couldn’t immediately figure it’s impact.
Suddenly, I felt a tickle welling up inside my nose. Grabbing a tissue just in time, I sneezed. Boy did I get a surprise! The strange sensation that had been brewing in my mouth blew out, resulting in an even stranger sensation as the kumquat fumes exploded into my nasal passages. That was quite a feeling never before experienced!
It took a while to dissipate. I had the notion that a nice French kiss right at that moment would be just the antidote. Not having a candidate at hand to test that theory, I tried to decide if this was in some total a pleasant experience. Unique, yes. It gave new meaning to the concept of cleansing the palate. I do think that a French kiss would be just the thing to tame a kumquat mouth. Test it, why don’t you?
Absent that, I recommend kumquats. Just don’t eat too may of them at once. And try not to sneeze.
UNIQUE FRUIT SALAD
Here is a neat little salad you can have for breakfast, dessert or anytime snack when you feel like a little tart and a little sweet together. The green and orange colors are an interesting combination, too.
