Mikan and Shikuwasa
One of the joys of living on a subtropical island is, of course, the amazing variety of fresh tropical fruits we have easy access to. We've been thoroughly enjoying all the types of citrus fruits lately - mikan, shikuwasa, tankan, and kinkan, to name a few.
Around New Years, the Japanese grocery stores were filled with decorative bags of mikan, a sweet citrus fruit about the size of a mandarin orange (on the left side of the photo.) The mikan has a thin skin and is surprisingly easy to peel. So far, this is our favorite of the citrus fruits we've tried here.
Next came the shikuwasa. Okinawa is famous for its sweetened shikuwasa juice (one of my vending machine drinks of choice.) The shikuwasa is often called an "Okinawa lemon" or "Okinawa lime" depending on the person attempting to speak English. It's often used as a garnish like a lemon or lime, but Brandon and I enjoy eating it like an orange. It's not quite as tart as an American lemon or lime and has many seeds. It's also smaller in size than the mikan (as you can see in the photo.)
We currently have a bag of tankan in our refrigerator and enjoy them as a refreshing snack. The tankan is slightly bigger than the mikan, and perhaps a little less sweet, but still smaller than the oranges we were used to in the States. Like the mikan, it also has a thin skin, but is much more difficult to peel (think Stateside orange.)
I picked up a small bag of kinkan at the grocery store last week. These tiny citrus fruits are the kind you eat with the skin intact. We think they must be an acquired taste. We both tried them (and I will tell you, it's very strange to bite into what looks like orange peel when you grow up with oranges that you peel before you eat), but neither of us liked the taste and I didn't like the texture. Oh well, three of four isn't bad odds. I continue to find us different variations of tankan and mikan in our grocery store for us to enjoy. Gotta love living on a subtropical island!
---Arielle