LIME JUICE, LEMON JUICE, AND ORANGE JUICE

Juice comes from any fruit or vegetable that gets squeezed hard enough.

But why not just eat the fruit or vegetable and call it good?

Once you eat a grape, drink some grape juice, what’s next? Some might say wine, some might not, but wine is the answer.

Does anyone eat a lime for fun? Or drink straight lime juice? Not many. Most see lime juice as a cooking ingredient, which was the cause of the picture on top, of a mixer for juicy drinks.

Tequila and lime? Lime margarita? Lime rub on chicken? Don’t ever stop.

But lime has its limits. Lemon is more versatile, beginning with lemonade, but it’s not up to the standard set by oranges. We might like limes and lemons, but love for oranges is far and away stronger.

Mmmm, orange juice. How often do we order a glass of lemon, or lime juice, with breakfast? Orange juice, please.

Fruity, But Not Too Fruity

Over the course of many years I’ve tried as many juices as I could in the cause of better health.

It came from beets, carrots, celery, and it was medicinal. My naturopathic doctor wife held well attended juice fasting sessions twice a year. She had a variety of people sign up to learn how it’s done; I went along with the program to keep the sea calm.

Imagine trying a fourteen day fast with someone in the house cooking the usual stuff? It would affect all but the most fanatical faster. In normal times I cook something up and resist the urge to plant my face in the pan. I’d probably dive in after the first week of fasting.

Yesterday, Father’s Day, I took over the kitchen so my lovely wife wouldn’t feel pressured into creating something over the top tasty. I settled on a teriyaki chicken recipe from delish.com.

It asked for one pound of chicken breast. One pound? Come on, who goes through the work to produce one meal that serves four? Not me. I started with seven pounds of chicken breasts, enough to feed a small unit twice.

I picked up a container of chicken at the old Cash and Carry across Hwy99 from Costco in Tigard.

It was a bigger job than the times called for, but what the hell. With wife cooling her heals, sonny and I worked on the math to expand the recipe from one pound to seven. Raise your hand if you knew three teaspoons equal one tablespoon. I thought two was the answer.

The sauce, with its combination of teriyaki, rice vinegar, a pile of minced garlic and ginger, filled a medium bowl. The smell was incredible and asked if I wanted a sip, but I waited until after the cooking was done.

It was probably safer warm.

The Juice Of Life

People from every corner of the world specialize in traditional cuisine. It’s usually determined by what’s available. Portland food carts work to bring new tastes to the streets.

One restaurant that took the idea to the top shelf was Pok Pok, famous for Thai street food. Since my wife is the adventure foodie, we went to Division for her birthday.

The place had a street feel and delicious entrees. We talked about how good it was, then how much it costs. My view was it was cheaper than going to Thailand.

Going out to Dar Salam Lazurdi is a taste of Iraq without the travel.

Dinner at Andina is a “taste of Peru in the Pacific Northwest.”

Like oranges, lemons, and limes, we humans come in all shapes and sizes and colors and all bring something special to the table. We’ve all got something that makes us different, special, and it only takes a lifetime to figure it out.

Instead of using your time here to find more to hate and fear, look for that moment of understanding that puts hate and fear back in its box. Food is a good start.

Rick Steves calls travel a political act. Whether you agree, or disagree, whether you get out in the world, or stay safe in your bunker, once you see how other people live, a certain awareness happens.

It runs from, “I could never live here,” to, “this isn’t so bad,” to, “when do we come back, I don’t want to leave.”

New things are dicey, but once you get down to basics, the learning begins.

Now, about that margarita.