My aunt who brought me that delicious jackfruit also gave me this pomelo from her trip to Penang. I placed this pomelo, or Chinese grapefruit, on my altar as an offering to the Buddha and conveniently left it there too long.

I have this silly habit of forgetting to eat stuff, if you can believe that! As a result, the pomelo is kinda over-ripe. But never mind, it’s even sweeter and juicier like this.

It’s quite an art peeling open a pomelo. Although it’s technically a citrus fruit, you can’t peel it like an orange because well, it’s the size of a small watermelon.

You need a sharp pointed knife to first cut right across the top of the pomelo about 1 inch down so it opens up like a cap.

To make it easier to peel the rest of the rind off, I have to divide it up into sections. I use the tip of the knife to make 5 or 6 shallow lines from the cut-off top all the way down to about 1 inch from the bottom.

Then from the top of each section, I dig my fingers in and peel downards. Repeat till all the sections are done. The whole thing will look like a flower with petals. Pretty, huh?

That done, I can dislodge the whole fruit from the rind and gently slice it open to reveal the segments. It’s just like an orange inside, so I just segment and pop into a Tupperware for easy storage.

I tend to refrigerate any leftovers because our climate here is so hot. I like it better chilled too. I don’t get to eat pomelos often, only around Chinese New Year because it’s believed to bring prosperity and good fortune.

I could use some of that, sure. So if someone brings me back one from up north (where they’re grown), I’ll gladly take it .

If you liked this post, subscribe to our RSS feed for more recipes, restaurant reviews and mouth-watering updates. If you've tried this recipe or restaurant, drop us your comment or feedback.