Did I let you know

This is just to say

I have eaten 
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving 
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold


William Carlos Williams


Summer holidays/ December holidays are all about doing nothing, tanning, reading and having no plans. But to me, they are also the time of fruit. Supersweet nectarines. Peaches. Plums. Grapes. Thick slices of watermelon with the juice running down your face. Ah, and the winner: Mangoes. Saving the pit for last and then, again, diving in with the juice all over your cheeks. Maybe I am just an excessively messy eater of fruit, but I like how tangible the flesh is, how fresh the taste, how much summer remains in a mouthful.

In France my summer highlight was to buy a bag of cherries, sit on the edge of the Île de la Cité, facing westwards, and having a far-spitting competition with myself into the Seine. We may be blessed with an abundance of tropical fruit, like mangos and pawpaws, but they have the berries. And purple figs. Hmmmmm. Purple figs. My kryptonite.

Mango Tree

For a year in Europe I searched for the perfect mango. They were always either too green or too hard or they did not smell the way a mango is supposed to smell. Ironically, I remember my first mango being eaten in Geneva, not in some tropical paradise full of mangoes. My mother was busy peeling one in the kitchen and asked if my sister and I wanted to try, and previously I had thought they were disgusting, but now my favourite part is cutting of the flesh and then sucking off the remaining bit in the pit so that all the juices spread over your face and run down your arms. It is rather piggish, but it is the best part.

Mango time is summertime. Mangoes are knowing I'm home and it's holidays and everyone is relaxed.

Grapefruit

At Fruit & Veg the grapefruits are going for R 3.99 per kilo, so if you like them, that's the place to go.
I actually don't like their taste. I once had a pomelo, and that is quite tasty, but graefruits tip over to the too-bitter edge of things. But I bought some nonetheless. Here is what you can do with them :
Option A:
Buy some Smirnoff Spin/Storm (preferably a quart or two, it's cheaper that way), add a sprig of mint and half a squeezed grapefruit. Then add some ice and pop in a straw. Proceed outside and chill by the pool with your easy summer cocktail.

Option B:
Sort of the same combination. Get loads of fresh mint, squeeze the juice from a grapefruit and perhaps and old orange if it is lying around an no one wants to eat it. Put everything in a pitcher and add one green tea teabag. Top the pitcher up with boiling water, and let the "tea" stand for about 5 minutes. Then add honey if you like it a bit sweeter. Almost like Moroccan Mint tea..

Oh and I changed the blog's layout. If you hadn't noticed.