Behold the buddha's hand

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A religious figure's hand, lopped off at the wrist, might be the last thing you'd expect to find stacked up next to the pears and the grapefruit. But it's citrus season, which marks the arrival of bright-yellow, long-fingered, wrinkled claws showing up at neighborhood grocery shelves.

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Succumbing to sheer curiosity, I bought this guy at the Wedge the other day (not cheap, I think it cost about $4) and then wondered what the hell I was going to do with it. David Karp, aka the Fruit Detective, had a writeup about buddha's hand recently in the LA Times in which he explains that this unusual fruit, "which looks like a cross between a lemon and a squid" is related to the citron and its tentacles were a genetic mutation.

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I learned that the buddha's hand is native to southwestern China and northeastern India but it's also grown in California. The fruit smells a bit like lemons or grapefruits, but its scent is more delicate and floral--distinctly unlike any other familiar citrus. When you cut it open, there's no juicy segments, just solid albedo, which is the term for the white portion beneath the rind (who knew?). Buddha's hand can be used for cooking, but more often it's used for marmalade or flavoring spirits. I sliced off the bright yellow skin, macerated it, and combined it with vodka: I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks.