The Dragon & The Buddha's Hand

"As the soil, however rich it might be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit."

-Seneca

San Francisco will hold it's annual Chinese New Year Parade this Sunday afternoon, come rain or come shine. It will definitely be raining according to the weatherman, which means I will have to miss this year's celebrations. Oh well, there will be other years, and I will be looking forward to it. I am not to sad about it, because I had a pretty good time recently at the Conservatory of Flowers, enjoying their citrus blossom exhibit in honor of the Chinese New Year. I loved photographing the gorgeous citrus blossoms and fruits, and of course, this festive dragon that was hanging in the lobby of the conservatory. I considered using this picture for my recent Round Robin Challenge entry as the subject of "RED."

All the citrus fruits looked wonderful, and mighty yummy, but one fruit in particular that I found interesting was the, Buddha's Hand. I had never seen it before, but through a little searching on the Internet I found out that it is also known as citron, and it is used often in fruitcakes. I have been eating it for years, I just had no idea how interesting it was in appearance. It is more sweet then most citrus fruits and therefore it can be used in a lot of different dishes from rice pilaf to candied fruit or even a light topping for fish. I also found out that it can be used as a natural room freshener, because of it's clean, sweet fragrance. I am going to see if I can't drop by one of the markets in Chinatown, and see if I can pick one up. I would love to try some new recipes with this exotic fruit. I will let you know what I come up with. :)

-OndineMonet
"Dragon"
Conservatory of Flowers
San Francisco, California
February 14, 2007
Afternoon