One of the best parts of the weeks leading up to Christmas was always the arrival of the citrus. When I was a kid, my parents would receive boxes and boxes of grapefruits and oranges, and it was such a happy bounty of brightly-colored, sweetly-flavored healthy food, that cut right through all the other bad (but oh-so-good) cookies and cakes and candy we were surrounded by and shoving into our mouths. Carefully packaged and held in cels that seemed expressly molded for each individual citrus fruit, the presentation was as important as the taste, lending it an aspect of something special and important – quite the change of pace from the limp plastic fruit bags that usually delivered fresh fruit into our home. It made citrus an event – and, even better, it was a holiday event – the best kind of event there is.
That happy correlation between Christmas and citrus was recalled the other day when Suzie delivered these mandarins – gloriously seed-free, and this season’s first fruit arrival (aside from a couple of grapefruits that my Mom gave us last week). They are as bright and cheery in the mouth as they are on the plate. December is here, Christmas is coming!
