It is difficult to know by what generic name to call the small, loose skinned orange, Citrus reticulata. Depending partly on origins and partly on custom, it is known variously as mandarin, tangerine, and satsuma. Mandarin comes from China (though the word is not Chinese) and is the favoured generic term of the Oxford Companion to Food, while tangerine and satsuma are Mediterranean. All that apart, at about this time of year, I find myself enchanted by the smell of the skin when peeling the fruit and of the fruit itself when separating the segments into a flower shape, like this.In the convenience store, I ask if there is any double cream.
"Only single", says the young assistant.
"I'll take single then".
"Take two singles and you'll have double", says the assistant.
In today's paper, I read of a middle aged photographer and artist who is arrested by the police for photographing a building near Elephant and Castle in London, which used to be occupied by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. He is is detained for 5 hours under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. While in custody the police seize the lock-blade knife, which he uses for sharpening his pencils. Apparently there is nothing in the Act, which says that you cannot photograph buildings. This story would be an amusing piece of satire, I think to myself, if it were not true.
3 comments:
The peels, when squeezed into a flame, make a satisfying explosive whoompfh.
I'd forgotten about squeezing the peel at a candle...
That's a lovely arrangement of segments, done with great care ad prettily lit. Apparently the satsuma is a particularly British preference, mostly here we get clementines, which I think the rest of Europe favours. I think I've come to prefer them too, though the peel is tighter to get off!
That story of the photographer isn't funny is it?
I wish I could get satsumas here. They are so easy to peel.
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