A Delicious Kalamansi Lime Beverage

“Delicious Beverage.” One of those idiosyncratic sayings in our household. Always said with a snickering smile and a bit of love. And its use is reserved for those drinks we really love.

Scene 1.

Every once in a while, all the neighbors in our cul-de-sac pull the grills into the circle and have a little gathering. A couple years ago, at one of these occasions, a neighbor boy from down the street joined the festivities. A cute 10 year old, skater/surfer kid. Blond, freckled, nicely tan, and with a permanent state of dishevel.

Evidently no one told him it was BYOB, cause after piling up a plate of burgers, dogs, and chips, he comes up to us, with the most innocent of voices, “Excuse me, where are the beverages?”

That proper tone coming from such a minion almost had us rolling.  Too-damn-cute. Being we only had alcoholic beverages on hand, we replied, “Back at your house!” Can’t let ‘em start mooching the hooch.

But ever since then, the term “beverage” has been endeared in our household.Scene 2.

Ahh… Delicious!

Although we regularly write on this here blog, we are wise enough not to regard ourselves writers. We reserve that term for the talented word craftsmen and women who actually know what they are doing with a sentence. Especially since we are lucky to consider ourselves friends with several exceptionally good writers.

One of such friend holds a special place in our hearts. Amy Scattergood- Author. Poet. Journalist. Editor. Culinary Bad-Ass.  She can write about boiling water and make it seem fascinating. She’s also the reason I almost always carry a knife in my pocket, but that is another story all together.

There are certain food terms Amy has seen a few hundred times too many in her position as food editor for LA Weekly. You know, “tasty” “yummy” and of course, “delicious.”

So it is with a twinkle in our eyes, and a little bratty love thrown in, when we think of “delicious”, we think of Amy. Nothing like being a burr under the saddle to show someone you love them!

The Final Act.

One of our rarer citruses in the garden (at least rare in the U.S.), and certainly one of the most exceptional, is our Kalamansi tree. Sort of like a super floral, heavenly, round shaped kumquat, the kalamansi is one of the citrus most people visiting our garden have never experienced. Unless they are Filipino or Vietnamese. Then they just get all giddy and we have to watch them for the rest of the evening to make sure they don’t pick the tree bare.

Like most of the citrus we grow, our favorite use of these little orbs is for beverages. Occasionally in a cocktail, if we happen to have sugar cane, a little kalamansi squeezed into the fresh sugar cane juice is absolutely divine.

But one of the best ways we’ve found to highlight the kalamansi is to simply make a kalamansi-ade. Fresh kalamansi juice. Simple syrup. Water. Quite a delicious beverage.

-Todd

 Print This Recipe
Kalamansi-ade Recipe
We always have a batch of simple syrup made up.  Takes only about 5 minutes to do, keeps exceptionally well, and is always useful. If you want to get fancy substitute some of the sugar’s weight with palm sugar, or crush some fresh ginger and make a ginger simple syrup. Serves 4. 2 c (470ml) Water1/3 c (80ml) Simple Syrup *recipe follows1/4 c (60ml) fresh Kalamansi JuiceCombine all ingredients together. Stir well. Serve over ice.

Simple Syrup Recipe

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. After cool, store in refrigerator until ready to use.

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Asia is the continent of islands: at its southern limit alone there are some 30,000 islands dashed across the watery surface of the world. On these islands, freed from the certainties of continental life and powered by the magic of islands, species multiply and diversify.

The central characters of Island Magic are the leopard, a top predator; the monitor lizard, an opportunistic scavenger which could become a top predator; and the ubiquitous fig tree.

The story begins on the island of Java which, until the thaw that ended the last ice age, was part of the Asian continent. Island life is difficult for the mammals from the continent; elephants and tigers are already extinct while the Javan rhino teeters on the verge. On Java it is the leopard that writes the rules which shape the lives of the creatures lower down the food chain. A more benevolent but no less powerful influence is that of the Fig tree the tree of life in this part of Asia. Our animal characters gather at a fruiting fig tree; the leopard to find its favourite food young piglets and the monitor lizard to find what it can. Meanwhile, high in the tree, bats devour the figs.

It was fruit bats that carried fig seeds to one of Asia s newest islands, Anak Krakatoa, which erupted from the sea some forty kilometres west of Java in l930. Anak Krakatoa, like all the islands, is populated by an eccentric cast of chance arrivals. The first monitor lizard arrived on the island within 6 years of the eruption. With the leopard left behind on Java, the monitor has become the undisputed top predator, but with only 70 years of isolation, there has been little time for island magic to weave its spell.

North of Java is the island of Sulawesi which has been isolated for 30 million years. From the handful of mammals that have managed to breach its isolation, Sulawesi has produced more than a hundred new species, making it one of the world s most remarkable species factories. Most extraordinary of all are the seven distinct species of macaques which Sulawesi has created from the single founding species which rafted its way from Continental Asia millions of years ago.

If the Fig is the tree of life on Java and Anak Krakatoa, on Sulawesi it is the forest of life. Here there is a greater diversity of fig trees than anywhere else on earth, and the fig has played a part in fashioning the community of exotic creatures that inhabit the island.

The monitor lizard has found its way to Sulawesi and, here too, it is the island s top predator. But because it has always been able to come and go to other islands, has never been fully isolated and island magic has had no chance to work.

But on isolated islands at the edge of Asia one to the east of Sulawesi and the other to the south isolation and island magic have fashioned from the humble monitor lizard two remarkable creatures. On one, a tiny tree-living vegetarian lizard. On the other, the komodo dragon, the top predator and the leopard of its island. Such is the power of Island Magic.

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