Of Calamansi

Calamansi compared to a US dime.

The calamansi fruit is the ultimate citrus fruit of the Filipino kitchen. Until very recently, I did not realize that it was also known as the calamondin (courtesy of Wikipedia and my own curiosity on whether it had an English name. Can you how much you can learn by just being curious and having access to Wiki?). Despite being really tiny, its juices's sour citrus flavor gives that extra kick to dishes without overpowering them. That's also why I like to call it the vodka of citrus fruits. Case in point: calamansi is often squeezed on top of a plate of pancit (stir fried noodles) to give it a little something something. Or you can do this too on a bowl of congee or arroz caldo. A little calamansi juice mixed with soy sauce makes a perfect dipping sauce for almost any kind of meat or seafood. The same calamansi-soy mixture with a little onion and garlic makes a perfect marinade for grilled pork or Filipino bistek (beef steak). 

Another way I love to enjoy calamansi is by making calamansi juice. You can make this using the same method you use for making lemonade (squeeze, strain, add syrup, add cold water, stir). Although, I've never tried it, I hear you can also use it to make curd, like lemon curd. I don't recommend zesting this fruit though, since its skin is really thin. I also don't recommend eating it raw. That would be like drinking vinegar. 

I always thought that calamansi only grew in South East Asia. I was extremely surprised when I saw calamansi trees in Florida. They were all over campus and I had to resist picking the fruit because I'm pretty sure the gardeners in the university would not have liked it. 

They're actually pretty easy to grow. My mom threw a couple of seeds in our garden once and in a few months we had a calamansi plant growing out of the ground. A few more months later, we managed to harvest a few calamansi fruits. Then, our neighbor's cat jumped on it and broke the plant in two, effectively killing it. Lesson: protect your plants from your neighbor's cats.