Grapefruit vs. Pomegranate, Generous Fruits, Grapefruit Juice

I was a party recently, hanging out with some old friends from home, when the pomegranate came up.  We were munching on tacos, passing around the circa 1980s taco sauce, when I said something like, "The avocado is a totally asinine food."  Statements like that often come out of my mouth.  Last year I spent the better part of six months insisting that the avocado did not warrant its popularity, that it was flavorless and that the droves who adored it adored it for no other reason than its mysterious color, much as some birds are transfixed by shiny objects.  "What do you think about the pomegranate?" my friend asked.  "The pomegranate is a completely ridiculous food," another friend said.  "It basically just shoots red wine everywhere."  If I hadn't been clutching my taco, I would have applauded him.  I don't mean to turn the pomegranate into my new whipping boy, but I do think that there are other fruits out there who reward your effort to get at them a lot more handsomely than the pomegranate does. The pomegranate is basically just a cluster of stones with a tiny sack of fruit around each stone.  The grapefruit is a much more generous fruit.

                 
I like this idea of a generous fruit—what's a generous fruit and what's not?  Some of the things we eat avail themselves to us so reluctantly.  Have you ever purchased a whole artichoke?  The artichoke is basically a giant thistle, and the ratio of edible food to the amount of labor required to get that food is not one you would take to Vegas if you didn't want to loose all of your money.  But still, we eat them.  They are completely stingy with their flesh, but we persist.  And perhaps this is why we persist.  The over-difficult effort to get the choke makes the choke more delicious.  It's like courtship.  You fan out all of your most exciting feathers and when the fruit finally yields it yields in gleeful spades.  I am terribly mixing metaphors here, but I think the same can be said about the pomegranate, not that it mixes metaphors, but that the glee of its fruit comes in part from our effort to get at that fruit.  Its little fruit-encased stones are like rubies beneath the rubble of a demolished airport.  What does this say about the grapefruit?  That the grapefruit is promiscuous?  That it's easy?  That the grapefruit gives up its succulent abundance for little more than a squeeze?  Perhaps it does, but I love the grapefruit.  The grapefruit gives so much so easily.

                 
I don't need to point out how glistening and perfect a grapefruit can be in the morning sun.  Instead I want to encourage you to seize the day.  Seize the season, I should say, because it's grapefruit season, and it's only during grapefruit season that it makes economic sense to squeeze a bagful of fresh grapefruits in your kitchen.  I'm talking about grapefruit juice.  The holidays come with their holiday parties, and holiday parties sometimes come with their holiday hangovers, but a hard morning can be softened by a sweet and bitter glass of grapefruit juice.  If you don't have a juicer, don't run out and buy one.  It's just as easy (and almost as effective) to squeeze them by hand over a pot.  Both methods work, but one, I think, is sexier than the other.  Get your hands on those grapefruits and give them a good squeeze.  Wring them out good and get some of the juice on your hands.  Lick the juice off your hands etc.  Just as before, at least half the pleasure is the quest for the pleasure.  Your glass of grapefruit juice will be more delicious for your labor.  Make two glasses, and share one with someone you love.