Treading water and a treat

So much for the fat lass being scared of maintenance. That's just where I seem to be right now. Hmmm, my motivation still isn't truly back yet but, given what's going on at the moment (worries about family, mostly), I suppose I'm not all that surprised.

I am making some effort (albeit a fairly half-hearted one) on both the food and exercise fronts which means my weight is wavering up and down by a pound or so, but not actually decreasing, it seems. Ho hum, basically I'm just maintaining. That's good in a way, but not great.

I will not get downhearted. I'll keep chipping away a little bit at a time and hope that my hibernating motivation emerges, fully-fledged, with the first spring flowers. The nights are getting shorter, so any day now...

What I have started to do is be a little more adventurous with the fruit (and veg) I'm eating. Yes, I love my mid-morning apples but I think a little swap-about is a good thing now and again, don't you? To this end, I've been bringing to work a series of fruity substitutes - er, treats actually. Things like juicy cherry tomatoes, beautiful blueberries (while they're on offer!), sweet little ruby grapes, small and sparky but hard to peel semi-sweet oranges and, a huge indulgence this, the odd box of pomegranate seeds. I've also rediscovered the delights of Greek (or in my case, Turkish) yoghurt - yum!

It's been a very nice change and, by and large, it's saving me from heading in the direction of the bad stuff. So, this brings me to my latest treat, which is...

...a pomelo. A honey pomelo, to be precise.

You may not be at all surprised at my strange Southeast Asian fruit, and wonder what the big deal actually is here. But, I've never tried one before, and am not certain I've ever seen them, so of course I had to give one a go and duly bought this melon-sized monster of a fruit. My treat was the cause of much hilarity in the kitchen last evening.

I had a feeling there would be a thick pith so didn't fret too much about buying such a decidedly heavy, football-sized citrus. I kind of guessed, from the delicious aroma, that it would be grapefruit-ish. I thought I would like it. After all, citrus = tasty + refreshing, what's not to like? What I hadn't factored in was the sheer effort it takes to get into the things!

It started calmly enough. I dug in a thumbnail to start to peel it - no joy! I tried again... and again - no joy. I carefully split the peel with the tip of a shap knife - this got a little bit off, but only for me to be confronted by a dense white pillow of pith, all of which wanted to come off in tiny, fluffy white pieces. Hmmm, time for a rethink. Time for a break! Consulted YouTube for a clue and tried to follow the 'quick 'n easy guide' I found. Easy? Quick? Yeah, right!

Lovely hubby was fascinated by this point, grinning at my fruity struggles. Finally, and with only a small amount of blueish language, I got through the pillow-filling layer and hit paydirt (OK, segments, if we must be pedantic). Wow, but there's a whole lot of this fruit - those segments are pretty sizeable and there are a lot of them. This baby might last me a few days! But, on to the next problem - how do you get through the semi-translucent, but indisputably leathery, pouches to get at those tempting edible bits?

Fingernails are just not designed to handle a job like this. I decided against the nice sharp kitchen knives (visions of my outer covering suffering more than the fruit's) and chose a scissors to carefully snip my way in to the first segment. Yippee! Great! I'm almost there. I can nearly taste my first pomelo!

Er, no. Not quite, it seems.

There is the minor problem of getting those teeny little edible bits off the intensely bitter skin/pith to which they seem strangely attached. Some of them co-operate quite happily but others (the majority, it appears) would prefer to stay exactly where they are and hang on for dear life. Too much enthusiasm and the little beggars burst open, rather defeating the point since I want to eat the pomelo, not drink it. Funnily enough, the numerous tiddly-small seeds come out and fall on the floor easy as you please. Typical! The citrus origin of this luscious fruit is also revealed in that the juice, as soon as it hits any tiny cuts on your fingers, of which there are a few by now, stings like heck. Still, the fat lass will not be defeated by a mere fruit! Perseverance is the my middle name.

At long last, indeed nearly an hour later (and with only a small sigh of relief), I get the darned thing disassembled and ready to eat. I place a small fragment into my mouth and...

...bliss! This was worth the bother. There's a definite resemblance to grapefruit but the texture is firmer and more pleasing on the tongue and the flavour is divine. Similar to grapefruit (again) but the 'honey' in the name is spot on. There's a delicate, almost floral, perfumed honey sweetness, which is not cloying at all. It tastes fabulous and is strangely moreish. Just lovely.

So, will I buy another pomelo? Hmmm, that may be a job best left for when I retire!