The Armadillo Cut

I enjoy cutting vegetables and fruits from childhood.

next to watering plants, this is one of the activities i find very soothing.

every vegetable or fruit has its own personality and style. if you understand that, you can make the cutting activity interesting.

one of the first techniques i learnt from my father was to cut oranges for people who like the fruit, but not the pips and do not prefer to bite and spit the seeds.

the idea was to split every piece [or whatever it is called]so that it can be opened like 2 wings.

the seeds can be easily removed and it is served without the seedds. for thosethat want only the fruit, they can help themsleves easily.

later on i used to wonder why some cuts are called french cuts - particularly beans.

all i can associate with french cuts is that they have slanting cuts.

i remember my stay in one of the suburbs of Paris called Cergy Pontoise, which was a modern township.

among the nice things there was that one could get from one part of the town to another completely on foot, and not have to cross any of the roads.

the town planners also believed that while a straight line might be the shortest path between two points, it is not necessarily the prettiest. and their focus was to make the town pretty.

coming back to my vegetable cuts, to make the job interesting, i try different ways of cutting, to reduce the time taken as well as the presentation.
which was when i figured out that i could name [and patent?] a way of cutting okra!
i call it the armadillo cut.

the technique is to arrange the lady's fingers in a pyramid - with the large ones at the base and stack the smaller ones on top.

as the height grows, you reduce the number of okras, till you reach the top with a single okra.

then it is very easy to cut all of them together with very few strokes of the knife.

the cut okras resemble an armadillo, with its scaly skin.

the armadillo cut for okras is fast and fun..

other fruits i like cutting are : jackfruit, watermelon, coconuts.

i still have not figured an easy [ane least messy] way or cutting pineapples..

any suggestions?