limes Talk.

If you ask me, one thing I would choose to always have it in my kitchen, that thing has to be limes. Since I have been cooking for myself, I've noticed that I never leave my kitchen to be without limes.

Lime is a common ingredient for Thai cooking, so that most Thai houses with a bit of land are more likely growing them in their own properties. As far as I remember there are two lime trees and many more of kaffir lime trees in my mom' s edible garden. I asked her once why she grew so many of them, she said, "for sharing with other people so they don't have to buy it." She doesn't believe in buying things that can be grown in one own backyard, and yes, we never have to buy these kind of things.



In the US, especially here in New York, kaffir limes and leaves are S*O* expensive. From the fact that they can't grow in the cold weather condition, they have to be shipped from the West, and are not always available which makes me sad sometimes. That is not the case for limes, limes are everywhere. I recently found that I can buy four limes for one dollar at a nearby Asian super market in my neighborhood. I am happy about it already, but if I converted the price to Thai Baht and told my mom about it, she would call me back home.



Smooth skin is juicer than pore skin.
Choosing right limes is the key for getting the most juice out of them. I think it would be wise sharing this in my blog since this is a Thai kitchen - we use a lot of limes in Thai food. Look for limes that have smooth skin - smooth skin tells you that these limes have very thin skin and when they have thin skin, more juice will come out, and you can leave the bad limes for those who doesn't read this blog...what?...too mean of ME?...alright you can share it with them later.



The "bad" limes, limes that I will leave them there in the basket forever are limes that have visible pores on the skin - dedicates the hard, thick skin - just by squeezing a little, thick skin limes produce less juice or, like my mom would say, they are not ripe enough to fully produce juice.

Now that you know, at least, how to get juicy limes, be prepare for an extreme taste of my foods.