More Than One Way

I love grapefruit.

For one thing it’s one of my top favorite scents in the world – I used to make a home made fine sea salt and sugar body scrub with grapefruit oil extract that turned my tub into a scary almond oil slick but left such a yummy smell behind. However I love the way it looks and tastes as well; and as a bonus – it’s good for me.

To me there’s only ever been one way to eat a grapefruit. You cut it in half, slice around the membranes with a small, sharp knife and then coat the sections with sugar. Once you’ve eaten out the sections, you squeeze the empty halves until all the sugar and juice is in the dish you were eating from – and you drink it.

Later I discovered Dole Fruit Naturals pink grapefruit cups; which are very tasty but again – they’re basically the same combo of fruit and added sugar prepped for you in advance.

Then I witnessed a friend sitting and eating a grapefruit more or less like you would an orange; peel it, take off the pith, peel the skin from the sections and just – eat.

I eyed her suspiciously…

“They’re too bitter for me to eat them that way.”

My friend: “No they’re not, here – try it…”

I tried it.

Turns out grapefruit aren’t half as bitter as I thought. They’re flavorful, tangy and sweet all at the same time – like nature’s Sweet Tart candy. They’re also extremely messy to eat like this since you wind up sucking the fruit out of the sections and squirting juice everywhere. But hey, I love food, getting sprayed with grapefruit juice isn’t such a bad time from my perspective – even if I did have to rinse it off my glasses later on.

The point of the story is habits; we get set in ours and don’t think to break out of them. I haven’t been eating a fruit I love, because I incorrectly thought I needed to load it with extra sugar in order to enjoy it. What other foods are out there I’ve been avoiding that simply need alternative prep methods prior to discovering something wonderful..?