citrus

I've enjoyed citrus of all types, and not all citrus is created equal. Limes are pretty much flawless, but oranges...now that is one high maintenance fruit.

I've had orange-related hang ups ever since I can remember. As a kid I used to strain orange juice with pulp in it. I don't really drink orange juice anymore as an adult, but if I had to, I would probably still strain it. My contempt runs pretty deep.

Oranges are an undeniably messy fruit with so many seemingly unnecessary steps to disassembly. What a prude fruit to make you undress both the rind and the pith to get any sort of reward. And even after you get to the actual edible part, you have so much crap in your nails that it hardly seems worth it. Grapes are so much more loose. You pretty much just pop and go.

But back to pith. That gross webby stuff between the peel and the fruit. I've known from a very young age that I would never enjoy pith. In fact, that pith would stand in the way of a healthy relationship with oranges. So the ONLY acceptable method of orange consumption is if all traces of pith are removed entirely. The result is mass carnage. It's pretty unsightly.

I took a 20 year leave of absence from oranges, and I've recently decided to give them another shot.

What have I learned?
That I pretty much had the matter evaluated correctly at age 11. I still hate the pith. The experience is still messy and the reward is still perfectly adequate.