Citrus Quotes

“There was a pleasantness to the air and a spirit about the town that did not come from its color, but from some inner, tasty citrus quality. It made Alexia wonder fancifully if cities could have souls.”
― gail carriger, Blameless

“Salt and citrus,” Cairdine Farrier said, joining her at the stern with a lemon in each hand. “The chemicals of empire.”
“Salt to preserve food for long journeys,” Baru recited. “Citrus for scurvy.”
― Seth Dickinson, The Traitor Baru Cormorant

“I knew that sunny citrus helped put things in focus, sharpened the memory, just like a squeeze of lemon juice could sharpen and clarify the taste of sweet fruit. I was also well aware that too much citrus could indicate a corrosive anger. My first wedding at Rainbow Cake had taught me that. But this was a gentle, subdued citrus, like the taste of a Meyer lemon.
Spice usually indicated grief, a loss that lingered for a long time, just like the pungent flavor of the spice itself, whether it was nutmeg or allspice or star anise. The more pronounced the flavor, the more recent the loss and the stronger the emotion. So there was some kind of loss or remembrance involved here. Yet there was also a comfort in the remembering, knowing that people had gone before you. That they waited for you on the other side.”
― Judith Fertig, The Memory of Lemon

“Never underestimate the power of freshly squeezed orange juice.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“The cucumber-mint sorbet came out next, more an intermezzo than a full course. Then dessert: Melody's elegant pistachio financiers. Rachel had topped the tiny French almond cakes with homemade orange blossom ice cream and garnished it with candied citrus peel and chopped pistachios.”
― Carla Laureano, The Saturday Night Supper Club

“Several weeks before he left Peking, Meyer visited a small village and noticed, in a house's doorway, a small bush with fruit as yellow as a fresh egg yolk. Meyer ignored a man who told him the plant was ornamental, its fruit not typically eaten but prized for its year-round production. The fruit looked like a mix between a mandarin and a citron (which later genetic testing would confirm). It was a lemon, but smaller and rounder---its flavor surprised him as both sweeter than a citron and tarter than an orange. And its price, twenty cents per fruit or ten dollars per tree, suggested that people with an abundance of other citrus valued it greatly.
Meyer had little room in his baggage, but he used his double-edged bowie knife to take a cutting where the branches formed a V, the choice spot to secure its genetic material.
That cutting made the voyage to Washington, and then the trip to an experiment station in Chico, California, where it propped up a new lemon industry grateful to receive a sweeter variety. The lemon became known as the Meyer lemon, and from it came lemon tarts, lemon pies, and millions of glasses of lemonade.”
― Daniel Stone, The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats

“A pound of butter and Lord knows how much sugar later, my head was clear, my spirit was calm, and I had a delicious calamansi-ginger pie cooling on the counter. I twisted shut the lid of the jar I'd filled with the excess calamansi-ginger curd and sighed in satisfaction. Now this was bliss.
The sweetness of the coconut shortbread crust scented the air, interspersed with the zest of citrus and zing of ginger. If I could bottle this scent, I'd wear it forever.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Arsenic and Adobo

“We ordered way too much food, but Vietnamese is a cuisine I don't try often, and I wanted to absorb every taste and texture. We started with the signature Tamarind Tree Rolls---salad rolls with fresh herbs, fried tofu, peanuts, fresh coconut, and jicama. We then moved on to the Crispy Prawn Baguette---a lightly fried prawn and baguette served with hoisin and fresh chili sauce. I was impressed at how light and crisp the batter was----it was no more than a dusting.
For a main course Nick ordered a curry chicken braised with potato and served with fresh lime and chili sauce. I couldn't help myself---I ordered the beef stew. I do this almost anywhere I go, because the cultural permutations are infinite. This one was fresh and citrusy with a dash of carrot, lime, pepper, and salt. I mentally developed some changes for my next stew. We also ordered green beans stir fried with garlic, and Shrimp Patty Noodles---a frothy bowl of vermicelli noodles, tomatoes, fresh bean sprouts, shredded morning glory, and banana blossoms.”
― Katherine Reay, Lizzy and Jane

“Curlicues of yellow lemon peel floated down into the sugar. Aromatherapy.
Some people might turn to the homey flavors of vanilla and cinnamon to chase away nerves, but citrus calmed Alisha's soul.”
― Chandra Blumberg, Digging Up Love

“It is, without a doubt, the most delicious orange I've ever eaten. Notes of raspberry give it a tartness and complexity that leave the classic supermarket navel orange in the dust.
"It's sunshine. It's bittersweet. It's perfect. My god," I say, gasping. "I think I just fell in love. I'm going to have a civil partnership with an orange."
Leo, who has been fairly quiet for the last half hour, leans forward onto his elbows. "They're not for everyone," he says, taking a segment. "Very fleshy, delicately juicy, and not obscenely sweet."
"Fleshy?" Luca says, tipping his glass toward us, playing with his mustache.
"Delicately juicy?" I say, raising an eyebrow. I expect Leo to feel embarrassed, but instead he shoots Luca a cheeky grin, eyes buzzing with mischief.
"Seriously, Olive," Luca says. "For me, the orange is so special to Sicily. We juice it, we ice it, we bake it, we zest it. It's an aperitif, a pasta dish, a dessert. It's the color of sunset on the outside, and a bleeding heart inside.”
― Lizzy Dent, Just One Taste

“Two weeks into my job at the Pacific, we got these beautiful Page mandarins, and Ximena talked about how much possibility they had in them. You could make a vinaigrette with the juice, or marmalade with the peel, or preserve them in salt, or add sugar, eggs, and butter and turn them into custard for a tart. That's when I realized there wasn't only one right way to treat an ingredient; there were many. I'd spent my entire life never getting anything right, and now I could just follow my senses, my gut instincts, and made something delicious that people liked."
I'd listened to him tell stories about his cooking history, but now he sounded different. Less glib, more earnest. "That's why you like citrus so much," I realized aloud. "Not just because of how it wakes up food.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“She felt herself gliding over stone. Tiare and puakenikeni floated behind her, their fragrance replacing the cavern's musty air. Notes of sasalapa and citrus and moss displaced the heady mildew and the scale rot coalescing on the rocks.”
― Keala Kendall, How Far I'll Go