Saturday, 19 December 2020

Four Pinwheels

 

Yuzu is a citrus fruit native to East Asia. It’s a rare find in the western world; I’ve seen it for sale in England (at an outrageous price) but not in the US. It’s illegal to import fresh yuzu, though I’m told it’s cultivated domestically. (You can probably find it in California. Everything grows in California.) I’ve never eaten yuzu, but I once tasted an overpriced bonbon with a yuzu-flavored center. It had very lemony-limey-grapefruity vibes. Yuzu has an important place in the winter solstice celebrations in Toji, Japan. This weekend, Japanese will toss yuzu into their bath water to refresh body and soul, to ward off illness, and to soothe dry skin. Some alert zookeeper in Japan once noticed capybaras (huge rodents imported from South America) also like a hot yuzu bath. So, the caged creatures in Japan will enjoy a citrusy soak this weekend as well. I’ll have to be satisfied with a lemon bath bomb.

No comments:

Post a Comment