Mongo's Mongologues #4: The Wonderful World of Raspberries & Blood Oranges

Mongo Monologue 4:

Dear readers, thank you for your previous encouraging comments. Today we explore the wonderful world of raspberries and, once again, blood oranges. These comments are once again posted in the interest of the prevention of diabetes and heart disease. Possibly, in a future post, I will discuss the causes of these diseases. As a primer, our readers here at the FPT may elect to research "Metabolic Syndrome."

If one views the first picture, we see that IaM has procured a beautiful basket of fresh raspberries. As an aside, procuring these delicious berries reminded me of my youth. Although I was born in San Diego, all of my family is from Michigan. When I was a boy of six to eight years of age, my mother used to fly me back to Oxford, Michigan to visit my grandparents. My mother would always send me in the summertime. At that time of year, berries of all types; namely, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and so forth grow in the wild and are ready for our exploring readers to pick from the wild.

Many of our FPT readers may mistakenly think that raspberries, and other berries, are exorbitantly expensive. These magnificent berries, loaded with vitamin C and anti-oxidants, may be procured at a very reasonable price during the heigth of the growing season. In point of fact, this writer procured these raspberries at Vons for $0.99, while they were on sale.

Let us now move on to the second photograph. I noticed that many of our FPT readers were intrigued by the beauty of the dark flesh of the blood orange as portrayed in a previous post to this forum. This second picture is a photograph of extremely high quality blood oranges. That is indeed how they appear when approaching them in the market. But, do not let appearances fool you; when it comes to blood oranges, the nastier looking, the better. When selecting blood oranges for your shopping basket, IaM has found that the nastiest looking ones are the best. Attempt to find blood oranges that look "splotchy" and have a prominent amount of a red tint to the peel.

Many of our discerning shoppers here at the FPT may simply avoid a blood orange such as the one on the left in the second photograph. Although it looks badly scarred, remember, when selecting blood oranges, the nastier looking, the better. I powered the one on the right for breakfast yesterday. I cannot tell you how delicious it was. The flesh was a deep blood color and the smell of citrus would remind anyone who has been there of the Sunkist stand at Disneyland.

Well, it's Saturday morning and it's time to prepare for a college football Saturday. Today, we have Penn State vs. Michigan at the Big House. Please stop back soon for IaM's discussion of another Halloween treat that tends to come into season at this time of year.