Citrus

Citrus plays a starring role in the Southeast Asian culinary scene. Flavorful sweet-sour juices are essential to creating dressings, dipping sauces, and beverages. Lime wedges are a mainstay on the table, adding balancing acidic notes to broths, brightening seafood dishes, and dissolving salt and chilies into instant sauces. The aromatic zest of regional citrus fruits, especially of the kaffir lime, is critical for Thai curry pastes. Segments of giant Vietnamese pummelo fruit are served at the end of meals to cleanse the palate or separated into glistening shards to create intriguing pummelo salad. As in the West, citrus is squeezed into tea. Finger bowls of citrus-laced water are offered at the end of a seafood meal to rinse seafood odors from the hands.