Som Tam Thai
The pomelo (Citrus paradisi; suha in Tagalog) has long been one of my favorite fruits. It is a vitamin-packed, thick-skinned citrus cannonball that is totally juicy, tangy-sweet, and refreshing. And, after course after course of rich foods over the Holidays, it is one of the best things to help get your system back in shape.
I don’t know how available pomelos are in other parts of the world, but they’re available in various forms here in the Philippines. You can buy them fresh from your local fruit merchant, usually shipped in from farms down south in Davao or from Quezon Province. Properly ripe ones have an amazing scent that evokes both oranges and lemons and the pulpy flesh within is either a very pale yellow or a rosy pink – kind of like a grapefruit only in a more delicate shade. The taste should be a balance of sweet and tart with a faintly bitter edge (again like a grapefruit).
It can simply be peeled, broken into segments, and eaten as is. Or, you can do what the Thais do: break up the segments and toss them peeled and cooked shrimp, cilantro, spring onions, snake beans (sitaw), and a salty-sweet dressing made with nam pla (patis; fish sauce), palm sugar, and lime juice for a salad known as som tam Thai. (The Mango Tree over at Bonifacio Global City does the fab version shown above.)
The juice is available bottled and tastes amazing on its own, though the local drinking crowd prefers to mix it with copious amounts of gin and ice for a popular punch. But the juice on its own is quite restorative and is loaded with Vitamin C, making it a popular choice for people with colds or the flu.
However, if detoxing with fruit – fresh or juiced – doesn’t grab your fancy…
Bring on the detox sheets!
…you can always grab a packet of foot detox sheets, slap them onto your soles before bedtime, and be right as rain by morning. :p
So, how are you coping with the post-Holiday food scene? What’s pulling your system back together after all the feasting? :D
I don’t know about frozen (I’m not of ambivalent about pomelos so don’t tend to seek them out) but a lot of the fresh ones appear around Chinese New Year!