小小橘子 . . . 紅了

#2022-0130

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日期：2022 年 1 月 27 日

地點：大甲媽媽家前面的院子

標題：小小橘子 . . . 紅了

Personal Notes: 

When Jean asked me where I took these pictures -- pictures of a kind of "small oranges" (小橘子), I replied to her, "Taken from the yard of Mama's house." I meant that the fruits which caught my eye on Thursday were there in the front yard of her mother's house.

"They're not 橘子(Mandarin oranges) or 柑 (tangerines)," she said. "They are 金桔/金柑 (kumquats)." 

Oh, what confusing names for me again! In Chinese we have three different words -- three Chinese characters: 橘 (meaning Mandarin orange), 柑 (meaning tangerine), and 橙 (meaning orange). And we have the similar names for these different fruits: 金桔 / 金柑 (kumquat), 橘柑 (Tachibana orange), and 柑橘 (a general term for citrus taxonomy, including citrus hybrids). Here citrus is so-called "柑橘屬" in Chinese. 

As for kumquats (also spelled as cumquats), they look like miniature, oval oranges. The special thing about kumquats is you get to enjoy them with their peels. Well, it is said that in Taiwan what we call "金桔 / 金橘" is, in fact, a hybrid that is more scientifically called "四季橘," that is, Calamonsi (also known as Calamondin, Philippine lime or Philippine lemon). 

Look! It's really not easy to learn a name. But regarding the photos I'm going to share, I care more about their images than their names!

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