After some light summer rain, plants and trees become more and more verdant; this is also the best time to enjoy the sugarcane that has grapefruit flower smell.
This way of enjoying sugarcane is originated by Hanoi people. It is really such a wonderful idea to combine the sweet fragrance of grapefruit flower with the sweet taste of sugarcane.
Sugarcane with grapefruit flower smell is a gift of nature. The flavor and the smell created by that combination is totally natural but so impressive that we just want to enjoy again and again.
However, nowadays, the dish is not very popular since it is not easy to find fresh grapefruit flower, and the process of preparing sugarcane costs much labor.
Choosing good sugarcane takes much time. The part at the top of a sugarcane is soft but still quite sour while near the stump, it is quite hard. Therefore, we should pick the part at the middle of a sugarcane.
The process of whittling the bark of the sugarcane requires us to be clever and skillful.
The knife that we use to whittle the bark must not be so thin, and we should hold the knife sedately when whittling or else its blade would cut deeply into the sugarcane.
Grapefruit flowers should also be chosen carefully. We should pick ones that are fresh, robust and just budding. The flowers that had already blossomed for one day would lose their fragrance.
We should not pick the grapefruit flowers either in the early morning or in the afternoon. The flowers would be most fragrant when the sunshine just appears
Put grapefruit flowers into a nylon bag that already had some chunks of sugarcane in it. Tie the bag tightly and put it in a cool and airy space in about one hour, and we can enjoy the sugarcane. If we want to put it in the fridge, then it would take us only 30 minutes to have sweet and fragrant chunks of sugarcane.
The flavor created by the combination of the natural sweet taste of sugarcane and the fragrance of grapefruit flowers is really wonderful. Savoring sugarcane in such a way would make us understand more about the cultural cuisine of Hanoi.
